Diagramming pathways of dimensionless power is a potent method for extrapolating between operating points on present-day tokamaks and future burning plasma devices. The heat transport power, current drive power, H-mode threshold power and other ‘plasma physics’ powers can be expressed in dimensionally correct (or normalized) form as Pa ^3/4, where P is the power and a is the plasma minor radius, with the relative gyroradius (ρ _*) dependence ranging from gyro-Bohm-like for transport (), Bohm-like for current drive () and worse than Bohm-like for H-mode threshold (). The D–T fusion power cannot be normalized in the same fashion since it is governed by nuclear physics, but at fixed B _T it scales like . Other ‘mixed physics’ powers can be incorporated into the dimensionless power framework by holding B _T fixed in the same manner. Diagramming these dimensionless powers vs ρ _* shows how the pathway to a steady-state reactor can be optimized relative to various operational boundaries. Using a steady-state hybrid discharge with β _N = 3.2 from DIII-D as the starting point, a multi-parameter optimization finds an attractive pathway to steady-state operation on ITER using 76 MW of current drive power (fusion gain of Q _fus = 8), along with a pathway to Q _fus = 20 in a JET-sized steady-state reactor with B _T = 10T.

绘制无因次功率的路径是一种有效的方法，可以在当今的托卡马克和未来燃烧的等离子设备的工作点之间进行推断。传热功率，电流驱动功率，H模式阈值功率和其他“等离子体物理学”功率可以用尺寸正确（或规范化）的形式表示为Pa ^3/4，其中P是功率，a是等离子体的次半径，其相对陀螺半径（ρ _*）的依赖性范围为：对于运输（）为陀螺-波姆（Byro -Bohm-like ），对于电流驱动（）为Bohm-like （Hohm ），对于H模式阈值（（）。由于D–T融合能力受核物理控制，因此无法以相同的方式归一化，但是在固定B _T时，其缩放比例为。通过以相同的方式固定B _T，可以将其他“混合物理学”能力合并到无量纲功率框架中。绘制这些无量纲的功率与ρ _{*的关系图}表明，如何相对于各种运行边界来优化通往稳态反应堆的路径。使用稳态混合放电用β _ñ = 3.2从DIII-d作为起始点，多参数优化发现使用76 MW电流驱动功率（融合增益的一个有吸引力的途径，以稳态操作上ITER Q _fus = 8），以及在B _T = 10T的JET大小的稳态反应堆中达到Q _fus = 20的途径。