Patent ID: 11929184
Assignee: TOKAMAK ENERGY LTD
Field: Engines, pumps, turbines (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC G  Y | IPC G

Claim 17:
18. A method of controlling a position, temperature and/or current of a plasma within a plasma vessel of a nuclear fusion reactor, the nuclear fusion reactor including sensors and plasma control inputs, wherein the sensors include one or more primary sensors and one or more secondary sensors, and wherein the plasma control inputs are configured to adjust the properties of the plasma, the method comprising:
providing an initial control model relating readings of only the one or more primary sensors to control of the plasma control inputs; and
performing a control loop including:
controlling the position, temperature, current, density and/or shape of the plasma using the plasma control inputs in dependence upon the one or more primary and/or one or more secondary sensors according to the control model,
determining, using a machine learning algorithm, correlations between readings of the one or more secondary sensors and readings of the one or more primary sensors, and/or between readings of the one or more secondary sensors and states of the plasma control inputs,
adjusting the control model based on the correlations determined by the machine learning algorithm, wherein adjusting the control model includes adding a secondary sensor to the control model when a correlation has been found between readings of the one or more secondary sensor and readings of the one or more primary sensors and/or between readings of the one or more secondary sensors and states of the plasma control inputs, and
controlling the position, temperature and/or current of the plasma based on the adjusted control model;
wherein the one or more plasma control inputs comprise any one or more of: magnetic field coils; poloidal field coils; toroidal field coils; a heating system; a current drive system; and a fuel input, and wherein the one or more primary sensors monitor the plasma and the one or more secondary sensors monitor aspects of the reactor other than the plasma.