TFTR status and plans

The Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) has been operating and providing physics data in regimes approaching those required for a fusion power reactor. Much progress has been made in improving the fusion product gain, Q, and TFTR routinely produces plasmas yielding a neutron source strength >10¹⁶ neutrons/second from D-D reactions resulting from up to 30 mW of neutral beam injection. TFTR has already produced D-D fusion plasmas which correspond to Q =0.5 if a D-T fuel mixture were substituted and enhancement factors due to higher neutral beam power capability with D⁰+T⁰ beams, increased global energy confinement time from favorable mass scaling using tritium, and a modest contribution of alpha-particle heating are taken into account. Recent redirection of the Magnetic Fusion Energy Program has shifted the near-term emphasis on TFTR from preparing for tritium operation and demonstration of energy breakeven to studying plasma fluctuations and transport in order to improve understanding and develop physics-based models of the plasma heat loss mechanisms