The world’s largest experimental thermo-nuclear installation, “Tokamak-10”, the prototype of a thermonuclear reactor, was launched at the Kurchatov Nuclear Energy Institute 35 years ago, on the 29th of June 1975. Its special magnetic field helps to achieve stable plasma equilibrium.
“Tokomak” or “toroidal chamber with axial magnetic field” was invented by Soviet physicists in the middle of 50s. Other countries could develop such a device only in the late 60s. In fact, “Tokomak” has become an international term because the device operated at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory is known as the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor and the installation in France, Tokamak de Fontenay aux Roses. The design of Tokamak devices has not suffered principle changes in the past decades, says the deputy director of the Kurchatov Institute, Boris Kuteev.
“The idea of “Tokamak” was suggested by Igor Tamm and Andrei Sakharov in the late 40s,” says Boris Kuteev. “Scientists planned to use such devices to produce nuclear fuel. Consequently, priorities changed and attention was focused on the development of a new energy source on the basis of thermonuclear fusion.”
Controlled thermonuclear fusion is the dream of mankind since it presents the world with an inexhaustible energy source that produces no and does not pollute the environment.
“At present, the task before science and technology is to achieve controlled thermonuclear fusion rather than carrying out a nuclear blast,” wrote Academician Igor Kurchatov in the 50s. “This will make possible to use the huge reserves of hydrogen as fuel,” he added.
The successful experiments on “Tokamak devices” have brought mankind closer to a safer nuclear energy era. For one, “Tokamak-10”, which functions even today, has cherished the hopes of scientists and made its contribution to high temperature plasma physics. Scientists achieved operating electron temperature up to 10keV or over 100 million degrees Celsius, during experiments on the “Tokamak-10”. This is the temperature that triggers thermonuclear fusion.
At present, physicists at the Kurchatov Institute are involved in a large-scale international project ITER to build an experimental thermonuclear reactor on the basis of “Tokamak” concept in Cadarache in southern France. Russia has invested 500 million U.S. dollars in the project. The other partners of the project are the European Union, U.S., Japan, China, India and South Korea. According to Russian physicists, the first Russian thermonuclear reactor will appear by 2050.
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