Plasma Heating & Current Drive
How the breeder heats its plasma and sustains its current.
- Auxiliary power
- 25.9 MW
- Methods
- NBI + RF
HYPERION heats and drives current with 25.9 MW of auxiliary power via neutral beams and radio-frequency systems. This supplies the non-bootstrap share of the 9.66 MA plasma current and keeps the plasma at its 15 keV operating temperature.
Heating and current-drive efficiency feed directly into the plant power ledger, which is why the auxiliary power is reported explicitly.
Common questions
By neutral beams and radio-frequency systems (ion- and electron-cyclotron), which also drive current. HYPERION's auxiliary heating budget is 25.9 MW, and these systems are how a driven machine is steered.
Beams and RF launchers are demonstrated on today's machines; they are specialised, long-lead components rather than open research questions.