I read that confined plasma in electromagnetic field uses in TOKAMAK nuclear fusion reaction. But I don't know what is the main role of plasma in fusion reaction. Is it use for producing energy required to fuse nuclei or something else?
[Physics] the role of plasma in nuclear fusion energy production
fusionnuclear-engineeringplasma-physics
Related Solutions
The basic idea
Fuse two relatively small nuclei together; say they have masses $m_1$ and $m_2$.
Get out a larger particle that has mass that's less than the sum of the original masses $M<m_1+m_2$.
The missing mass $\Delta m = M-(m_1+m_2)$ is released as energy via $\Delta E=\Delta mc^2$.
Why does the fused particle have less mass than the sum of the original two? See ChrisWhite's post above.
Disclaimer: this is a vastly simplified explanation; for more details see here.
You are referring to scaling laws for the energy confinement time ($\tau_{E}$), which is a key performance parameter for a fusion reactor. For example, a stellarator currently has \begin{equation} \tau_{E} \propto \, a^{2.33} B^{0.85}, \end{equation} where $a$ is the minor radius and $B$ is the toroidal magnetic field. This particular scaling is of the Bohm type, which is found during low confinement operation. During high confinement operation, an improved scaling of the gyro-Bohm type is present.
To answer your question, I will derive the origin of the above scaling using general principles (see sec. 7.6.4, here). Exponential degradation of confinement is generally assumed, which gives the following confinement time for particles in a cylindrical device with minor radius $a$ and length $L$, \begin{equation} \tau_E \approx \frac{N}{dN/dt}= \frac{n \pi a^2 L}{\Gamma_{\perp} 2 \pi a L} = \frac{n a}{2 \Gamma_{\perp}}\,, \end{equation} where $N$ is the number of ion-electron pairs, $n$ is the number density and $\Gamma_{\perp}$ is the cross-field particle flux with diffusion coefficient D, \begin{equation} \Gamma_{\perp}=- D \,\nabla n\,. %= v_{\perp} n\,. \end{equation} The normalized density gradient scales with the machine size as $\frac{\nabla n}{n} \propto \frac{1}{a}$, giving \begin{equation} \tau_E \propto \frac{a^2}{D}\,. \end{equation} Physically, the particle diffusion in strongly magnetized plasmas is carried by turbulence that is driven by gradients such as the ion temperature gradient or density gradient. This so-called drift wave turbulence can be analytically shown (see Eq. 21.39, here) to have a diffusion coefficient \begin{equation} D\approx \frac{1}{k_{\perp}a}\frac{k_B T_e}{e B}\propto\frac{1}{k_{\perp}a}\frac{T_e}{B} \,, \end{equation} where $k_{\perp}$ is the wavenumber of turbulent fluctuations perpendicular to the magnetic field.
In the worst-case scenario, the fluctuations occur on the scale of the minor radius due to global effects, $k_{\perp}\approx\frac{1}{a}$. This gives the Bohm diffusion, \begin{equation} \tau_E \propto \frac{a^2 B}{T_e}\,. \end{equation}
In the best-case scenario, the fluctuations occur on the ion gyro-radius scale, $k_{\perp}\approx\frac{1}{\rho_i}$, due to micro-turbulence that is much smaller than the machine size, where the ion gyro-radius is given by \begin{equation} \rho_i=\frac{\sqrt{k_B T_i m_i}}{e B}\,. \end{equation} In this case, we get the gyro-Bohm scaling, which is more favorable by factor $\frac{a}{\rho_i}\gtrsim 1000$, \begin{equation} \tau_E \propto \frac{a^2 B}{T_e} \left(\frac{a}{\rho_i}\right)\,. \end{equation} Due to this very favorable scaling with size, ITER is projected to become the first machine to get 10 times more fusion power out than heating power in (with $^2H$+$^3H$), and you probably don't need to make the device several kilometers large for $^1H$+$^{11}B$ fusion.
Best Answer
You may have things a bit mixed up.
Plasma is not something that plays a role in fusion as if it were a tool or an instrument for its achievement. It is instead the only possible medium where nuclear fusion can occur: very basically, high enough temperature for protons to overcome the Coulomb repulsion, and high enough density for increased chances of fusion reactions.
So it is an intimate part of nuclear fusion, rather than an appendix or a component of it. All components of nuclear fusion rather revolve around the plasma: how to heat it, how to contain it, how to shape it, how to control it, etc.
Whether in nature or in laboratories, these questions are answered by ancillary structures (e.g. large gravitational and magnetic fields, vacuum vessels, magnets, neutral beam injectors, radio-frequency antennas, lasers or solenoids), but the plasma will always be the central and indispensable part of the whole process of producing energy through nuclear fusion.