The H-1NF (or H-1 Australian Plasma Fusion Research Facility) was a

research institute A research institute, research centre, research center or research organization, is an establishment founded for doing research. Research institutes may specialize in basic research or may be oriented to applied research. Although the term often i ...

of the H-1 heliac, a large

stellarator A stellarator is a plasma device that relies primarily on external magnets to confine a plasma. Scientists researching magnetic confinement fusion aim to use stellarator devices as a vessel for nuclear fusion reactions. The name refers to the ...

device located in the

ANU Research School of Physics The Research School of Physics (RSPhys) was established with the creation of the Australian National University (ANU) in 1947. Located at the ANU's main campus in Canberra, the school is one of the four founding research schools in the ANU's In ...

Canberra, Australia Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The c ...

. It was established when the H-1 heliac was promoted to a national facility in 1996, adopting H-1NF as its facility name ("H-1" from the stellarator and "NF" for National Facility). In 2022 the H-1 heliac was disassembled before being shipped to its new home in China.

H-1 heliac stellarator

The ''H-1'' flexible Heliac is a three field-period helical axis

. Optimisation of the H-1 power supplies for low current ripple allows precise control of the ratio of secondary (helical, vertical) coil to primary (poloidal, toroidal) coil currents, resulting in a finely tunable magnetic geometry. Slight variation in the current ratio between shots (plasma discharges) in a sequence corresponds to a high resolution parameter scan through magnetic configurations (i.e.: rotational transform profile, magnetic well). The programmable control system allows for repetition rates of around 30 shots per hour, limited by data acquisition time and magnet cooling time.

Stated objectives

* Provide a high-temperature plasma national facility of international standing on a scale appropriate to Australia's research budget. * Provide a focus for national and international collaborative research, make significant contributions to the global fusion research effort and increase the Australian presence in the field of plasma fusion power into the next century. * Gain a detailed understanding of the basic physics of hot plasma which is magnetically confined in the helical-axis stellarator configuration. * Develop advanced plasma measurement systems ("diagnostics"), integrating real-time processing and multi-dimensional visualization of data.

References

External links

H-1NF HomepageH-1NF description and images

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Image of H-1NF
{{authority control Stellarators Nuclear research institutes Plasma physics facilities