WEST (formerly Tore Supra)
WEST, or Tungsten Environment in Steady-state Tokamak, is a French tokamak that originally began operating as Tore Supra after the discontinuation of TFR and of Petula. The original name came from the words torus and superconductor, as Tore Supra was for a long time the only tokamak of this size with superconducting toroidal magnets, allowing the creation of a strong permanent toroidal magnetic field. After a major upgrade to install tungsten walls and a divertor, the tokamak was renamed WEST.
WEST plasma chamber
A tokamak is a device which uses a powerful magnetic field generated by external magnets to confine plasma in the shape of an axially-symmetrical torus. The tokamak is one of several types of magnetic confinement devices being developed to produce controlled thermonuclear fusion power. The tokamak concept is currently one of the leading candidates for a practical fusion reactor.
The reaction chamber of the DIII-D, an experimental tokamak fusion reactor operated by General Atomics in San Diego, which has been used in research since it was completed in the late 1980s. The characteristic torus-shaped chamber is clad with graphite to help withstand the extreme heat.
A USSR stamp, 1987: Tokamak thermonuclear system
Ronald Richter (left) with Juan Domingo Perón (right). Richter's claims sparked off fusion research around the world.
Red plasma in EAST, with visible light radiation dominated by the hydrogen alpha line emitting 656 nm light.
