Dynamic formation of a hot field reversed configuration with improved confinement by supersonic merging of two colliding high-ß compact toroids.

A hot stable field-reversed configuration (FRC) has been produced in the C-2 experiment by colliding and merging two high-ß plasmoids preformed by the dynamic version of field-reversed θ-pinch technology. The merging process exhibits the highest poloidal flux amplification obtained in a magnetic confinement system (over tenfold increase). Most of the kinetic energy is converted into thermal energy with total temperature (T{i}+T{e}) exceeding 0.5 keV. The final FRC state exhibits a record FRC lifetime with flux confinement approaching classical values. These findings should have significant implications for fusion research and the physics of magnetic reconnection.

Colliding beam fusion reactor

Recent results with Tokamak experiments provide insights into the problem of magnetic confinement. They demonstrate how to avoid anomalous transport and thus solve the major problems of Tokamak reactors: size, the production of 14-megaelectron volt neutrons, and maintenance. An alternate confinement system, the field-reversed configuration, confines beams of protons and boron-11. For the proton-boron-11 fusion reaction, the fusion products are all charged particles for which direct conversion is feasible and neutron flux is negligible.