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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 23/26 (W)
- Supersedes: <fusion-faq/glossary/w_934543711@rtfm.mit.edu>
- Followup-To: sci.physics.fusion
- Date: 11 Nov 1999 12:26:35 GMT
- Organization: Princeton University
- Lines: 88
- Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU
- Distribution: world
- Expires: 23 Feb 2000 12:24:17 GMT
- Message-ID: <fusion-faq/glossary/w_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: 1995/02/26
- Originator: faqserv@penguin-lust.MIT.EDU
- Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu sci.physics.fusion:44271 sci.answers:10868 news.answers:170854
-
- Archive-name: fusion-faq/glossary/w
- Last-modified: 25-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 23: Terms beginning with "W"
-
- 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).
- ==================================================================
-
- WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
-
- # W: Chemical symbol for Tungsten
-
- @ W-7AS, W-7X: See Wendelstein entry
-
- * Wall Conditioning: Describes a class of procedures used to
- control the composition of materials adsorbed onto the walls of
- a plasma device. Conditioning is important because material from
- the walls can create impurities in the plasma, and these
- impurities typically degrade plasma performance. See also
- boronization, impurity control, electron cyclotron discharge
- cleaning.
-
- * Wall Loading: Fusion reactor thermal output power divided
- by the area of the wall facing the plasma. (Neutron wall
- loading is 4/5 of the total for D-T fusion.)
-
- & Waste, Radioactive: See Radioactive Waste.
-
- & Wavelength: The length of a single cycle of a wave; usually
- measured from crest-to-crest. For electromagnetic waves, the
- wavelength determines the type (radio, infrared, visible,
- ultraviolet, X-Ray, gamma-ray) of radiation; in the case of
- visible light, wavelength determines the color of the light.
-
- & Waves:
-
- & Weak (Nuclear) Force:
-
- > Wendelstein: A family of stellarators built in Garching, Germany.
- The machine currently in operation is Wendelstein-7AS (aka W-7AS).
- Wendelstein ("spiral rock") is a craggy Bavarian mountain; some of
- W-1 through W-6 were built, some were just paper studies; AS stands
- for "advanced stellarator" and refers on the physical side to an
- attempt to minimize neoclassical effects (see entry for Neo-classical
- Diffusion) such as the bootstrap current (see entry), and on the
- technical side to the use of out-of-plane coils as an alternative to
- linked coils. W-7X, a much larger, superconducting stellarator based
- on the same concepts has been proposed to be built by the European
- Union in Greifswald, on the north coast of Germany.
-
- * Whistler: A wave in a plasma which propagates parallel to the
- magnetic field produced by currents outside the plasma at a frequency
- less than that of the electron cyclotron frequency, and which is
- circularly polarized, rotating in the same sense as the electrons
- in the plasma (about the magnetic field); also known as the
- electron cyclotron wave. Whistlers are so-named because of their
- characteristic descending audio-frequency tone, which is a result
- of the dispersion relation for the wave (higher frequencies
- travel somewhat faster). This tone was frequently picked
- up during World War I by large ground-loop antennas (which were
- actually being used to spy on enemy field telephone signals).
-
- % Wisconsin - See University of Wisconsin-Madison
-
-
-
-
-