SCR-1

The Stellarator of Costa Rica 1 (or SCR-1) is a small modular stellarator for the magnetic confinement of plasma located at Cartago, Costa Rica. It is developed by the plasmaTEC group of the Plasma Laboratory for Fusion Energy and Applications at Costa Rica Institute of Technology.^[1][2] It began operation as Latin America's first stellarator on 29 June 2016.^[3][4]

SCR-1

Stellarator of Costa Rica 1
SCR-1 vacuum vessel and coil structure
Device type	Stellarator
Location	Cartago, Costa Rica
Affiliation	Costa Rica Institute of Technology
Technical specifications
Major radius	238.1 mm (device) 140 mm (plasma)
Minor radius	100 mm (device) 42.2 mm (plasma)
Magnetic field	0.0438 T (438 G)
Discharge duration	3 ms
Plasma current	40 kA
History
Year(s) of operation	2016–present

SCR-1 is of a compact design and has the distinction of having the smallest aspect ratio of any operating stellarator device (>4.4). Its design is influenced by the small Spanish stellarator UST-1.^[5]

History

In 2010, SCR-1 was originally proposed to be much bigger in size (major radius of 460.33 mm, plasma radius of 42.2 mm) and scale (aspect ratio of 5.7, magnetic field of 0.0878 Tesla), and was expected to complete in 2011.^[5]

However, the development of SCR-1 took five years (between 2011 and 2015) to complete.^[6]