Golem - tokamak of CTU



… somewhere, in the ancient cellars of Prague, there is hidden indeed "infernal" power. Yet it is the very power of celestial stars themselves. Calmly dormant, awaiting mankind to discover the magic key, to use this power for their benefit…

Tokamak GOLEM just in action (see \"blue\" plasma in the chamber through the glass port

The demand for new energy

As one observes increasing demands of humankind for energy, importance of seeking new energetical resources becomes more and more evident. Current major strategy of power plants to heat the water, thus producing the steam to power turbine to generate electricity stands the principal question what to burn. The inspiration from the nature, that comes from within the cores of the stars, gives rise to idea to create and maintain something like a small star inside the reactor, where light nucleas fuse into hevier ones releasing thermal energy. It is a unique challenge for human being to harness the star's energy in the cerestial conditions managing extremely sophisticated physics and technology issues. The decision to build up the international experimental reactor ITER triggered the demand for new generation of scientists and technologist, that can cope with such an objection. The education in the field of the thermonuclear fusion suffers from having a good experimental background since the relevant experiments are extremely sophisticated and expencive.

Tokamak Technology

The tokamak (see Fig. link) is a device where in its simplest possible description it is necessary to heat the fuel /deuterium-tritium mixture/ to the plasma state up to 100 milions centigrades while securing the insulation of such a hot media from the reactor vessel. Both requirements are reached providing a very special configuration of electric and magnetic fields applied on the toroidal geometry of the reactor.

Tokamak GOLEM

The tokamak Golem (see Fig. link) is a continuation of unique history of the tokamak TM1, build in the 60's at the Kurchatov institute near Moscow, then doing scientific work at the Institute of plasma physics in Prague and finally, after transportation to the Czech technical university, starting it's 3rd era as the educational device - thus being the oldest tokamak still in operation in the World. After complete reconstruction of its infrastructure using modern IT techniques it began to serve as a tool for students to get acquinted with the basic principles of tokamak physics, technology and operation. This facility is offered to the FUSENET (the 7th FWP European Fusion Education Network) as a practica experiment for students of the university on-site as well as for foreign students remotely.
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