Compact Experimental Negative TriAngUlarity Reactor (CENTAUR): Design Study for a Breakeven Negative Triangularity Device

POSTER

Abstract

The Compact Experimental Negative TriAngUlarity Reactor (CENTAUR) is the product of the collaborative Fall 2024 Fusion Design course offered at Columbia with participants from Columbia and Princeton University. The goal of the course was to produce a next-step, breakeven negative triangularity tokamak that could be constructed with existing technology. CENTAUR is predicted to achieve net fusion gain (Q>1) at low capital cost and is materially robust to a lifetime of scientific use. The device remains compact, with a major radius of 2.0 m, while high-temperature superconducting magnets enable a magnetic field of 10.9 T on-axis. Optimized divertor geometry and significant radiated power fraction, enabled by negative triangularity plasma shaping, in the edge allow high power density in the device without necessitating advanced divertor concepts. Mechanical stress and neutron modeling suggest CENTAUR's magnetic systems and vacuum vessels will withstand operational stresses, including robustness to at least 10,000 vertically unstable full-current quenches. Costing models estimate a total operational cost below $2 billion.

*Work supported by Columbia University. Princeton University students participated via the Inter-University Engineering Doctoral Consortium. Work also supported by US DOE and LLNL under contract DE-AC52 07NA27344. This work used Bridges-2 at Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center through allocation PHY240186 from the Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Coordination Ecosystem: Services & Support (ACCESS) program, which is supported by National Science Foundation grants #2138259, #2138286, #2138307, #2137603, and #2138296.

Presenters

  • Samuel W Freiberger

    • Columbia University

Authors

  • Samuel W Freiberger

    • Columbia University

  • Anson E Braun

    • Columbia University

  • Daniel Alexander Burgess

    • Columbia University

  • Evan Maxwell Bursch

    • Columbia University

  • NATHANIEL CHEN

    • Princeton University

  • Javier Eduardo Chiriboga

    • Columbia University

  • Hiro Josep Farre Kaga

    • Princeton University

  • Eliot Felske

    • Columbia University

  • Sophia Guizzo

    • Columbia University

  • Jacob Michael Halpern

    • Columbia University

  • Christopher J Hansen

    • Columbia University

  • Mohammed Haque

    • Columbia University

  • Andreas Michael Holm

    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

  • Abdullah Syed Hyder

    • Columbia University

  • Alexandra Lachmann

    • Columbia University

  • John Anthony Labbate

    • Columbia University
    • University of Maryland College Park

  • Nils Leuthold

    • Columbia University

  • Rohan Lopez

    • Columbia University

  • Orso-Maria OM Meneghini

    • General Atomics

  • Andrew O Nelson

    • Columbia University

  • Kian Orr

    • Princeton University

  • Matthew Christopher Pharr

    • Columbia University

  • Kalen Richardson

    • Columbia University

  • Melanie Russo

    • Columbia University

  • Filippo Scotti

    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

  • Shreyas Seethalla

    • Thea Energy
    • Columbia University

  • Frederick Sheehan

    • Columbia University

  • Tim Slendebroek

    • General Atomics
    • University of California, San Diego

  • Ian Stewart

    • Columbia University

  • Matthew Tobin

    • Columbia University

  • Avigdor Veksler

    • Columbia University
    • TAE Technologies, Inc.

  • Haley S Wilson

    • Columbia University

  • Jamie Laveeda Xia

    • Columbia University

  • Carl Friedrich Benedikt F Zimmermann

    • Columbia University