Disruption Mitigation
A disruption dumps the plasma's stored energy suddenly; at 9.66 MA the machine must detect and soften these events to protect its structure.
When confinement fails fast
A disruption is a rapid, unplanned loss of plasma confinement. The stored thermal and magnetic energy is released in milliseconds, driving large heat loads onto surfaces, mechanical forces on the vessel and coils from induced currents, and potentially beams of runaway electrons. At 9.66 MA the energy involved is substantial, so disruptions are a design load the machine must survive.
Detection and response
Mitigation begins with prediction: diagnostics watch for the precursor instabilities that precede a disruption. When one is detected, the machine can inject material, gas or shattered pellets, to radiate the stored energy uniformly and terminate the current in a controlled way, spreading the load rather than concentrating it. The goal is to convert a violent event into a survivable one.
Designing for the worst case
Because no prediction is perfect, the vessel, coils, and support structure are designed to withstand the forces of an unmitigated disruption as a fault case, while operations aim to avoid disruptions and mitigate those that occur. Runaway-electron avoidance is part of the same problem. Disruption frequency and severity at Hyperion's parameters, and the effectiveness of mitigation, are studied in simulation and are part of what the first-of-a-kind campaign will characterize.
- Disruptions release stored energy in milliseconds
- Prediction plus material injection softens the event
- Structure is designed to survive the unmitigated fault case
This page describes a design and simulation study, not a built machine. Construction begins Q2 2027; first-of-a-kind first tritium is targeted near 2030.