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- Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!faqserv
- From: Robert F. Heeter <rfheeter@princeton.edu>
- Newsgroups: sci.physics.fusion,sci.answers,news.answers
- Subject: Conventional Fusion FAQ Glossary Part 15/26 (O)
- Supersedes: <fusion-faq/glossary/o_934543711@rtfm.mit.edu>
- Followup-To: sci.physics.fusion
- Date: 11 Nov 1999 12:25:57 GMT
- Organization: Princeton University
- Lines: 129
- Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU
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- Expires: 23 Feb 2000 12:24:17 GMT
- Message-ID: <fusion-faq/glossary/o_942323057@rtfm.mit.edu>
- References: <fusion-faq/glossary/intro_942323057@rtfm.mit.edu>
- Reply-To: rfheeter@pppl.gov
- NNTP-Posting-Host: penguin-lust.mit.edu
- Summary: Fusion energy represents a promising alternative to
- fossil fuels and nuclear fission for world energy
- production. This Glossary is a compendium of Frequently Used
- Terms in Plasma Physics and Fusion Energy Research. Refer
- to the FAQ on Conventional Fusion for more detailed info
- about topics in fusion research. This Glossary does NOT
- discuss unconventional forms of fusion (like Cold Fusion).
- X-Last-Updated: 1995/02/22
- Originator: faqserv@penguin-lust.MIT.EDU
- Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu sci.physics.fusion:44263 sci.answers:10860 news.answers:170846
-
- Archive-name: fusion-faq/glossary/o
- Last-modified: 20-Feb-1995
- Posting-frequency: More-or-less-quarterly
- Disclaimer: While this section is still evolving, it should
- be useful to many people, and I encourage you to distribute
- it to anyone who might be interested (and willing to help!!!).
-
- ===============================================================
- Glossary Part 15: Terms beginning with "O"
-
- FREQUENTLY USED TERMS IN CONVENTIONAL FUSION RESEARCH
- AND PLASMA PHYSICS
-
- Edited by Robert F. Heeter, rfheeter@pppl.gov
-
- Guide to Categories:
-
- * = plasma/fusion/energy vocabulary
- & = basic physics vocabulary
- > = device type or machine name
- # = name of a constant or variable
- ! = scientists
- @ = acronym
- % = labs & political organizations
- $ = unit of measurement
-
- The list of Acknowledgements is in Part 0 (intro).
- ==================================================================
-
- OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
-
- @ OFE: Office of Fusion Energy; see entry
-
- @ OH: Ohmic Heating; see entry
-
- @ OH1, OH2L, OH2U: Ohmic Heating Coils (1,2, upper, lower)
- on Alcator C-Mod
-
- @ OPEC: Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries; see entry
-
- @ ORNL: Oak Ridge National Laboratory; see entry
-
- % Oak Ridge National Laboratory: Located in Oak Ridge, TN.
- Home of a series of various fusion devices. Recent machines
- have included the Elmo Bumpy Torus and the Advanced Toroidal
- Facility (stellarator). (Could use more info!)
-
- % Office of Fusion Energy: This is the office (within the
- Office of Energy Research in the U.S. Department of Energy)
- which administers the fusion energy research program.
- Web users can visit http://wwwofe.er.doe.gov/ for more info.
-
- ! Ohm, Georg Simon (1789-1854): Physicist who discovered the
- relationship between electric current, potential and resistance.
- (Yes, it is Georg. Swedish, I believe.)
-
- $ Ohm: Unit of electrical resistance.
-
- & Ohmic heating: Heating that results from the flow of current
- through a medium with electrical resistance. In plasmas
- subjected to ohmic heating, ions are heated almost entirely by
- transfer of energy from the hotter, more mobile electrons.
-
- * Ohmic heating coil: On a tokamak, this is the coil (generally
- a set of coils; part of the poloidal field system) used to
- induce an electric field in the plasma via a transformer
- effect. The electric field generates of a toroidal plasma
- current, with resultant ohmic heating.
-
- * Ohmic heating solenoid: See ohmic heating coil, solenoid.
-
- & Ohm's Law: The relationship between the net current and
- the electric field in a conducting medium. For simple
- resistors, the voltage equals current times resistance,
- V = I*R. In plasmas the "generalized Ohm's Law" is a
- more complex tensor relationship involving the vector
- current density, the vector for the electric field, and
- a generalized resistance tensor that relates the two.
-
- > OMEGA: Inertial confinement fusion facility at the Laboratory
- for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester (NY). OMEGA
- uses a 24-beam Nd:glass laser at wavelengths of
- 1.054 or .351 microns.
-
- # Omega: Variable frequently used to denote frequencies.
-
- * O-Point: Place where the poloidal magnetic field vanishes in such
- a way that the nearby flux surfaces are elliptical, e.g. on the
- magnetic axis (see entry) or at the center of a magnetic island (see
- entry). (See also X-Point.)
-
- & Optical Axis: The line passing through both the centers of
- curvature of the optical surfaces of a lens; the optical
- centerline for all the centers of a lens system.
-
- & Optical Interferometer: This is an interferometer (see entry)
- which uses the interference of optical-frequency light waves.
- These are useful in measuring distances precisely, and can
- be used to test optical system elements (lenses, mirrors, etc.)
- during manufacture.
-
- * Optical Pumping: In laser physics, this denotes the process
- in which absorbed light is stored in the laser medium. If the
- absorption & storage process creates a population inversion,
- laser action can occur (and extract the energy stored by optical
- pumping in the form of laser emission).
-
- * Oscillator: In laser physics, this refers to a device to
- generate coherent optical energy. (i.e., it's another term
- for the laser-light creating device itself, minus the source
- of power which pumps the oscillator.) The oscillator generally
- consists of a laser medium placed within an optical resonant
- cavity (pair of mirrors). Optical energy will be trapped between
- the mirrors and the optical (laser) oscillations will grow
- so long as the gain of the laser medium exceeds the losses at
- the mirrors.
-
- * Outboard Side: portion of a tokamak / toroidal device on
- the outer side, opposite the central axis.
-
- * Overturning Moment: Torque ("moment") on a toroidal field
- coil in a tokamak, about the device's radial direction,
- that results from out-of-plane forces on the coil due to
- the interactions between the coil current and the poloidal
- (vertical) magnetic field. This torque tends to "overturn"
- the vertical toroidal field coil, and must be engineered
- against.
-
-
-