The Alcator C-Mod Tokamak
For 40 years MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC) has been
exploring nuclear fusion as a source of energy through a series of
tokamaks. The C-Mod is the third in a series of Alcator tokamaks
developed at MIT since the 1960s. Characterized by a donut-shaped
vacuum chamber wrapped in high-field magnets, the Alcator approach makes
it possible to produce very dense and well-confined plasmas in a
relatively compact device. (The name “Alcator” comes from alto campo
torus = high field torus.) Its metal (molybdenum) walls can accommodate high power
densities. Alcator C-Mod has made significant contributions to the world
fusion program in the areas of plasma heating, stability, and
confinement of high field tokamaks.Alcator C-Mod is the only tokamak in the world operating at and above
the ITER design magnetic field and plasma densities, and it produces
the highest pressure tokamak plasma in the world, approaching pressures
expected in ITER.Image source & credit: Dave Mosher/Tech Insider