Parallel connecting poloidal coil system for a doublet tokamak fusion reactor

A method has been developed for parallel connection of the ohmic heating (OH) coil. The method involves subdividing the OH-coil into a number of parallel connected subcoils, with each subcoil having about 20 turns. Each of the field shaping coils (F-coils) also contains 20 turns, so that when connected to a common power supply, the OH and F-coils are decoupled. The advantages resulting from the scheme are numerous: (1) each F-coil contains a much smaller number of turns compared with the previous design concept, thus the construction and maintenance will be easier; (2) the parallel connected OH-coils form a constant flux envelope, resulting in an inherently lower error field at the plasma and the TF coil region, and this low error field is not sensitive to the variation in location of the OH-coils; (3) the voltage and current ratings of the individual OH coil conductors are reduced; and (4) the low impedance of the OH-coil system greatly improves the possibility of using a homopolar motor generator as a means of achieving flux reversal during startup and plasma current control during the burn cycle.