Table of contents

The author describes the early years of R.S. Pease's career with the UKAEA. The development of materials, chemical technology and basic physics research related to the science and technology of nuclear weapons and civil nuclear energy is outlined, with particular reference to Dr Pease's contributions.

Some recollections of research on toroidal RF discharges, linear discharges and the pinch effect in the 1940s and 1950s are presented. The materials and devices used are described. The development of the ZETA device is discussed, with some reflections on security and on the attentions of the press. The ZETAZ and ICSE (Intermediate Current Stability Experiment) projects are also mentioned, with comments on budget-related problems.

The author describes Dr Pease's research at Harwell in the late 50s and 60s, including pinch discharges in the aluminium Mk III and Mk IV toruses, experiments on ZETA and research programs on stellarators, reversed field pinches and ion cyclotron plasma heating. Some developments originating at the Geneva conference on Atoms for Peace and the Conference on Controlled Thermonuclear Reactions are outlined.

The author looks back to the sixties, the pinch experiments and the contribution that Dr Pease made to them, and to the theoretical work which was being pursued at that time. The work on pinches which included the ZETA device, the Mark IV torus, TIBER and FAUST (a hard-core pinch) started to decrease in the 1960's. The work saw an improvement in plasma parameters, electron temperature moving up to some 200 eV, and confinement time towards a millisecond or so. During this period there was a significant advance in understanding in the theoretical requirements for the stability of these devices, on ideal MHD and resistive MHD. Dr Pease was very active in stimulating that work and that led to the present work on the Reverse Field Pinch. Later in this period he was very active in setting up experiments which were to be conducted in 1969 on the T3 tokamak in the Soviet Union.

The development of the reversed field pinch over approximately 20 years is described. The author discusses the theoretical basis, tearing mode instability, the Lundquist number, Taylor's theory of relaxed states, scaling, density control, impurity control, and improvements to plasma parameters. Some future developments are mentioned.

The evolution of tokamaks is described, concentrating on Soviet research. The author deals with internal disruptions, fan instability, neutral beam injection, ICRH, ECRH, profile consistency, current drive, bootstrap current and the physical evolution of the Tokamaks themselves. He describes the T-15 and TSP tokamaks and the OTR experimental fusion reactor. The prospects for international cooperation are mentioned.

The author describes the status of JET as at December 1987. The status of various categories of staff is outlined. Details of the construction and operation of the JET are presented, along with the internal behaviour of the JET plasma. Results of pellet injection are briefly examined, and future directions of research are indicated.

The role of EURATOM in coordinating fusion research in Europe is described. Developments in this field, including the foundation of the JET project, are described. Some political and organisational difficulties are outlined.

The motives for international cooperation and some reasons for engaging in such activities are considered. The author presents some thoughts on the European Community and on JET. Some cooperative programmes within EURATOM or in International Energy Agency are described. The TEXTOR toroidal pump limiter project is discussed in some detail. Some future possibilities are briefly examined.

The author discusses the applications of collaboration and friendly competition in fusion research. He gives an account of Lyman Spitzer's Model-A stellarator. The Model-C machine is described in detail. A Lawson diagram, showing the improvement in both ion temperatures and the product of density and confinement time from 1953 to 1987, is presented. The Compact Ignition Tokamak is also discussed.