National Research Centre Kurchatov Institute

The National Research Centre Kurchatov Institute is a Russian research organization in Moscow. It operates T-15MD and studies confinement, heating, current drive and diagnostics. ITER identifies T-15MD as an operating tokamak with research relevance to ITER, future demonstration reactors and fusion neutron sources.

The institution and machine should not be conflated: T-15MD is neither another name for the institute nor a company selling commercial reactors. Kazakhstan’s National Nuclear Center and its KTM tokamak in the city of Kurchatov are separate entities in another country.

A 2024 conference report by the research team describes a major radius of 1.48 m, a minor radius of 0.67 m and an aspect ratio of 2.2, with a D-shaped plasma cross-section. Aspect ratio relates the overall torus size to the thickness of its plasma column. Elongation and triangularity are not merely visual descriptors: they influence the conditions for confinement, stability and control.

The report describes additional heating and current-drive provisions involving electron-cyclotron waves, neutral beams, ion-cyclotron waves and lower-hybrid waves. These techniques do not all have the same function. Heating particles, sustaining current and assisting startup require complementary capabilities. Planned equipment capacity must also be distinguished from the systems and power actually used in a particular experiment.

The researchers’ 2024 presentation reported two 2023 experimental campaigns in limiter configuration. Results included plasma currents up to 260 kA and electron temperatures of 3–3.5 keV; a 2-second pulse was reported at 190 kA. These are historical results from early campaigns, not a statement of the machine’s present maximum performance.

Electron temperature describes the electron population and need not equal ion temperature. Current, temperature, density and duration are different measurements, and maxima from separate discharges must not be combined into a fictitious single result. Nor do these parameters alone demonstrate fusion output exceeding external input or electricity delivered to a grid. The operating conditions and measurement method are integral to the meaning of a result.

A separate 2024 contribution from Kurchatov and university researchers examines X-ray diagnostics associated with energetic electrons. Measuring radiation from multiple directions can help reconstruct spatial and temporal behaviour relevant to magnetohydrodynamic instabilities and current drive. The contribution discusses a multichannel arrangement, laboratory detector tests and initial experiments with a prototype; it does not establish long-term operation of a fully completed system.

Such measurements reveal internal behaviour that a striking photograph of plasma cannot show. Identifying abnormal conditions and assessing whether heating and current drive work as intended are important to future extended operation.

T-15MD’s contribution is to connect geometry, heating, current, instabilities and diagnostics into better tokamak operating knowledge. This is distinct from demonstrating an entire generating plant with qualified materials, fuel circulation, electricity conversion and maintainable components.

• ITER: international tokamak research
• T-15MD team: first experiments, 2024
• Kurchatov/MPEI: X-ray diagnostics, 2024