PPPL-3582 is available in <a href="PPPL-3582.pdf">pdf</a> or 
<a href="PPPL-3582.ps">postscript</a> formats.

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<b>Physics Regimes in the Fusion Ignition Research Experiment (FIRE)</b>
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<b>Authors:</b> D.M. Meade, S.C. Jardin, C.E. Kessel, M.A. Ulrickson, J.H. Schultz, 
P.H. Rutherford, J.A. Schmidt, J.C. Wesley, K.M. Young, N.A. Uckan, R.J. Thome, P. Heitzenroeder, B.E. Nelson, and C.C. Baker
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<b>Date of PPPL Report:</b> June 2001
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<b>Presented at:</b> the 28th EPS Conference on Controlled Fusion and Plasma Physics, Madeira, Portugal, June 18-22, 2001.</p>


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Burning plasma science is recognized widely as the next frontier in fusion research. The Fusion Igntion Experiment (FIRE) is a design study of a next-step burning plasma experiment with the goal of developing a concept for an experimental facility to explore and understand the strong nonlinear coupling among confinement, magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) self-heating, stability, edge physics, and wave-particle interactions that is fundamental to fusion plasma behavior. This will require plasmas dominated by alpha heating (Q is greater than or equal to 5) that are sustained for a duration comparable to characteristic plasma timescales (greater than or equal to 10<FONT FACE = "Symbol">t</FONT FACE = "Symbol"><sub>E</sub>, ~4 <FONT FACE = "Symbol">t</FONT FACE = "Symbol"><sub>He</sub> , ~2 <FONT FACE = "Symbol">t</FONT FACE = "Symbol"><sub>skin</sub> ). The work reported here has been undertaken with the objective of finding the minimum size (cost) device to achieve these physics goals.

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