Applicability of high Tc superconducting plasma stabilizer to tokamak reactor

Authors have proposed a new method to improve the plasma vertical instability using high Tc superconductors ; high Tc superconductors, which are located in plasma periphery, keep penetrating magnetic flux due to the plasmas, so that the plasmas become stable with regard to their position. The feasibility of this method was verified by conducting the numerical simulation of tokamak plasma and high Tc superconductors. However, the following concerns must be examined in order to apply high Tc superconductors to tokamak reactors practically : (1) effect of high Tc superconductors to plasma start-up, (2) effect of electromagnetic force and nuclear heating in high Tc superconductors. In this paper, the above issues were examined via numerical analysis and experiment taking an example of the configuration of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor.