Tokamak de Varennes
| Tokamak de Varennes | |
|---|---|
| Device type | Tokamak |
| Location | Varennes, Quebec, Canada |
| Affiliation | National Research Council, Hydro-Québec |
| Technical specifications | |
| Major radius | 85 cm (33 in) |
| Minor radius | 27 cm (11 in) |
| Magnetic field | 1.5 T (15,000 G) (toroidal) |
| Discharge duration | 30 s |
| Plasma current | 200 kA (later 300) |
| History | |
| Date(s) of construction | 1983 |
| Year(s) of operation | 1986–1997 |
The Tokamak de Varennes, or TdeV for short, was a tokamak fusion reactor built in Varennes, Quebec, a suburb of Montreal, Canada. A distinguishing feature of the system was a power supply able to keep the system running for up to 30 seconds, over ten times that of most devices of the era. It studied issues related to the interactions of the plasma and the inner wall of the reactor, as well as the "scrape off layer" of low-energy ions near the outside of the plasma volume.
The TdeV plans developed during the late 1970s. At the time, a number of very large tokamaks were under construction with the goal of reaching breakeven, which was expected around 1982 to 1983. A smaller device could not match these conditions, but could still be useful for exploring the many unresolved practical issues of a commercial system. A formal plan was presented in late 1980, and in January 1981 the Canadian government announced they would provide funding for the project via the National Research Council Canada in partnership with Hydro-Québec. It was the largest scientific project in Canadian history.
TdeV was built at the Institut de recherche d'Hydro-Québec (IREQ) laboratories in Varennes starting in 1983. It began operations in 1986 and operated continually until 1997, generating a large number of scientific reports. Experience on this system, along with the ready presence of tritium from the CANDU reactors, was the basis for a failed pitch to locate ITER in Canada at the Darlington Nuclear Generating Station. Federal funding ended in 1997; Hydro-Quebec could not afford the $20 million yearly operational budget, and operations ended.
TdeV was still fully operational when it was shut down, and an effort began to sell it whole. Iran offered the only serious bid, but political pressure made this impossible. Ultimately, the only sale was one of its plasma heating systems to General Atomics as part of upgrades to their DIII-D tokamak. The rest of the machine eventually ended up as a major display in the Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa.