I am working on the project, ‘Using advanced camera image and data analysis to address an important hurdle for magnetic fusion energy’, supervised by Prof Bruce Lipschultz and Dr James Harrison (CCFE).
For magnetic fusion reactors to function effectively, it is important to minimize the heat flux and erosion of divertor surfaces. Existing methods for lowering the heat flux combine plasma and atomic physics with improvements in surface geometry. However further reductions are needed along with a better understanding of the physics.
In my project, I will analyse CCD images of the MAST-U Super-X divertor using ray tracing and tomography techniques. These will then be integrated with atomic physics models and other diagnostics to derive the properties and evolution of the plasma. This will help advance our basic physics understanding of what processes are at work in the divertor region and the data will serve as a basis for testing (or benchmarking) our numerical models of the divertor region.
Simon Orchard is now a CDT Alumnus.