The Mirror Fusion Test Facility, or MFTF, was an experimental magnetic confinement fusion device built using the tandem magnetic mirror design. It was, by far, the largest, most powerful and most expensive mirror machine ever constructed. Due to budget cuts, it was mothballed the day after its construction was complete, and sat unused for a year before being formally cancelled. $372 million dollars were spent on the system during its lifetime.
MFTF was the ultimate development of a series of machines at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) that trace their history back to the early 1950s. Over the years one problem after another had been addressed, leading to designs using "baseball" and "yin-yang" mirrors. By the late 1960s, it appeared possible to build stable mirrors. However, these changes had also lowered their economic performance, to the point where they appeared unattractive as power generators. A new concept introduced in the early 1970s, the tandem mirror, appeared to offer a way forward.
In 1968 the Soviets demonstrated their tokamak systems were outperforming all others by a factor of at least ten times. The path to practical fusion appeared open, and in the US, Robert Hirsch began plans to produce a prototype power plant using the tokamak design. Having secured a massive budget increase, and desiring a second design in case the tokamak didn't pan out, a study of the alternative concepts suggested the best developed was the tandem mirror, and the MFTF concept was born. A smaller version, the Tandem Mirror Experiment (TMX), was also funded to test the basic layout.
Construction of MFTF and TMX began in 1977. TMX was much smaller and easier to build than MFTF, and began operations in 1979. By the early 1980s, TMX was beginning to demonstrate serious problems that suggested MFTF would not work as predicted. This was occurring around the same time that Ronald Reagan declared that the energy crisis was over. In a series of sweeping budget cuts across the entire energy research field, MFTF had its operational budget cancelled, although its construction budget survived. Construction completed in 1986, and the facility sat unused for a year being scavenged for parts by other researchers until it was formally cancelled in 1987 and disassembled.
History
It was designed and built at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), one of the primary research centers for mirror fusion devices. It cost 372 million dollars to construct, making it at the time the most expensive project in the lab's history. It opened on February 21, 1986 and was promptly shut down. The reason given was to balance the United States federal budget.[1]
Following on from the earlier Baseball II device, the facility was originally a similar system in which the confinement area was located between two horseshoe-shaped "mirrors".
During construction the success of the Tandem Mirror Experiment ("TMX") led to a redesign to insert a solenoid area between two such magnets, dramatically improving confinement time from a few milliseconds to over one second.[2] Most of the fusion power would be produced in the long solenoid. The yin-yang magnets would then serve only to dam up the ends in order to maintain good plasma confinement in the solenoid. Limited to break-even energy balance, the magnetic mirror endcaps consumed power, but much less than that produced in a solenoid of sufficient length.
A new version, officially MFTF-B, started construction in 1977 and was completed in 1986 on the very day the project was canceled. No experiments were performed. Rollbacks in fusion research funding dramatically reduced funding levels across the entire field.
Legacy
Parts of the MFTF have since been re-used on newer fusion experiments, one of which won a recycling award.[3]
References
Booth, William (1987). "Fusion's $372-Million Mothball". Science. 238 (4824): 152–155. Bibcode:1987Sci...238..152B. doi:10.1126/science.238.4824.152. PMID 17800453.
The Tandem Mirror Fusion Test Facility
Re-using MFTF parts Archived 2006-10-06 at the Wayback Machine
vte
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Facilities
Mirror Fusion Test Facility
Tandem Mirror Experiment National Atmospheric Release Advisory Center National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center National Ignition Facility
Supercomputers
ASC Purple ASCI Blue Pacific ASCI White Peloton Sierra
Products
Lasers
Argus Cyclops Janus Long path Nova Novette Shiva
Others
Gist LLNL RISE process LX-14 Micropower impulse radar Reliable Replacement Warhead ROSE SCALD Silo Slapper detonator W47 W70 W71 Yorick
People
Ernest Lawrence Edward Teller
Related
IBM Blue Gene Inertial confinement fusion Laser Inertial Fusion Energy Stockpile stewardship Sustained Spheromak Physics Experiment Z-Division
vte
Fusion power, processes and devices
Core topics
Nuclear fusion
Timeline List of experiments Nuclear power Nuclear reactor Atomic nucleus Fusion energy gain factor Lawson criterion Magnetohydrodynamics Neutron Plasma
Processes,
methods
Confinement
type
Gravitational
Alpha process Triple-alpha process CNO cycle Fusor Helium flash Nova
remnants Proton-proton chain Carbon-burning Lithium burning Neon-burning Oxygen-burning Silicon-burning R-process S-process
Magnetic
Dense plasma focus Field-reversed configuration Levitated dipole Magnetic mirror
Bumpy torus Reversed field pinch Spheromak Stellarator Tokamak
Spherical Z-pinch
Inertial
Bubble (acoustic) Laser-driven Magnetized Liner Inertial Fusion
Electrostatic
Fusor Polywell
Other forms
Colliding beam Magnetized target Migma Muon-catalyzed Pyroelectric
Devices,
experiments
Magnetic
confinement
Tokamak
International
ITER DEMO PROTO
Americas
Canada STOR-M United States Alcator C-Mod ARC
SPARC DIII-D Electric Tokamak LTX NSTX
PLT TFTR Pegasus Brazil ETE Mexico Novillo [es]
Asia,
Australia
China CFETR EAST
HT-7 SUNIST India ADITYA SST-1 Japan JT-60 QUEST [ja] Pakistan GLAST South Korea KSTAR
Europe
European Union JET Czech Republic COMPASS GOLEM [cs] France TFR WEST Germany ASDEX Upgrade TEXTOR Italy FTU IGNITOR Portugal ISTTOK Russia T-15 Switzerland TCV United Kingdom MAST-U START STEP
Stellarator
Americas
United States CNT CTH HIDRA HSX Model C NCSX Costa Rica SCR-1
Asia,
Australia
Australia H-1NF Japan Heliotron J LHD
Europe
Spain TJ-II Germany WEGA Wendelstein 7-AS Wendelstein 7-X Ukraine Uragan-2M
Uragan-3M [uk]
RFP
Italy RFX United States MST
Other
Canada LINUS Russia GDT United States Astron LDX Lockheed Martin CFR MFTF
TMX Perhapsatron PFRC Riggatron SSPX United Kingdom Sceptre Trisops ZETA
Inertial
confinement
Laser
Americas
United States Argus Cyclops Janus LIFE Long path NIF Nike Nova OMEGA Shiva
Asia
Japan GEKKO XII
Europe
European Union HiPER Czech Republic Asterix IV (PALS) France LMJ LULI2000 Russia ISKRA United Kingdom Vulcan
Non-laser
United States PACER Z machine
Applications
Thermonuclear weapon
Pure fusion weapon
International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility ITER Neutral Beam Test Facility
Hellenica World - Scientific Library
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/"
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
