COMPASS, short for Compact Assembly, is a compact

tokamak A tokamak (; russian: токамáк; otk, 𐱃𐰸𐰢𐰴, Toḳamaḳ) is a device which uses a powerful magnetic field to confine plasma in the shape of a torus. The tokamak is one of several types of magnetic confinement devices being ...

fusion energy Fusion power is a proposed form of power generation that would generate electricity by using heat from nuclear fusion reactions. In a fusion process, two lighter atomic nuclei combine to form a heavier nucleus, while releasing energy. Devices de ...

device originally completed at the Culham Science Centre in 1989, upgraded in 1992, and operated until 2002. It was designed as a flexible research facility dedicated mostly to plasma physics studies in circular and D-shaped plasmas. When it was decommissioned at Culham, it was offered to the European Commission and found a new home at the Institute of Plasma Physics of the

Czech Academy of Sciences The Czech Academy of Sciences (abbr. CAS, cs, Akademie věd České republiky, abbr. AV ČR) was established in 1992 by the Czech National Council as the Czech successor of the former Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences and its tradition goes bac ...

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

where it began operations once again in 2006. It officially ended its experimental runs on 20 August 2021 and will be disassembled to leave room for a new device, COMPASS-U.

History

The first plasma in COMPASS was produced in 1989 in a C-shaped

vacuum A vacuum is a space devoid of matter. The word is derived from the Latin adjective ''vacuus'' for "vacant" or " void". An approximation to such vacuum is a region with a gaseous pressure much less than atmospheric pressure. Physicists often di ...

vessel, i.e., in a simpler vessel with a circular cross-section. Pioneering experiments followed, including for example the

ITER ITER (initially the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, ''iter'' meaning "the way" or "the path" in Latin) is an international nuclear fusion research and engineering megaproject aimed at creating energy by replicating, on Ear ...

-relevant tests of

magnetic field A magnetic field is a vector field that describes the magnetic influence on moving electric charges, electric currents, and magnetic materials. A moving charge in a magnetic field experiences a force perpendicular to its own velocity and t ...

correction with saddle coils for Resonant magnetic perturbations (RMP) experiments or experiments with non-inductive current drive in plasma. The operation of tokamak was restarted with a D-shaped vacuum vessel in 1992. The operation mode with high plasma confinement (

H-mode High-confinement mode, or H-mode, is an operating mode possible in toroidal magnetic confinement fusion devices mostly tokamaks, but also in stellarators.Joint European Torus The Joint European Torus, or JET, is an operational magnetically confined plasma physics experiment, located at Culham Centre for Fusion Energy in Oxfordshire, UK. Based on a tokamak design, the fusion research facility is a joint European p ...

(JET) at Culham and the

ASDEX Upgrade ASDEX Upgrade (''Axially Symmetric Divertor Experiment'') is a divertor tokamak, that went into operation at the Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik, Garching in 1991. At present, it is Germany's second largest fusion experiment after stell ...

at the Institut für Plasmaphysik in

Garching Garching bei München (''Garching near Munich'') or Garching is a town in Bavaria, Germany, near Munich. It is the home of several research institutes and university departments on its campus. It became a city on 14 September 1990. Location The ...

, Germany. In 2002, British scientists started alternative research on larger, spherical tokamak

MAST Mast, MAST or MASt may refer to: Engineering * Mast (sailing), a vertical spar on a sailing ship * Flagmast, a pole for flying a flag * Guyed mast, a structure supported by guy-wires * Mooring mast, a structure for docking an airship * Radio mast ...

. Operation of COMPASS was discontinued due to insufficient resources for the operation of both tokamaks, however, the planned research program was not complete. The European Commission and UKAEA sent COMPASS to the Institute of Plasma Physics in

in the autumn of 2004. The machine restarted operations in 2006 and operated continually until its last "shot" on 20 August 2021. During its operational time in Prague, COMPASS carried out 21,000 experimental shots. , plans are to dispose of COMPASS to make way for a significantly larger machine, COMPASS-U (for Upgrade).

COMPASS and COMPASS-U

References

External links

Magnetic fusion in the Czech Republic

Diagnostic system on COMPASS
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0741-3335/58/1/014015 {{fusion experiments Tokamaks Nuclear technology in the Czech Republic

History

COMPASS and COMPASS-U

See also

References

External links