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Fusion energy: Progress, partnerships, and the path to deployment
Over the past decade, fusion energy has moved decisively from scientific aspiration toward a credible pathway to a new energy technology. Thanks to long-term federal support, we have significantly advanced our fundamental understanding of plasma physics—the behavior of the superheated gases at the heart of fusion devices. This knowledge will enable the creation and control of fusion fuel under conditions required for future power plants. Our progress is exemplified by breakthroughs at the National Ignition Facility and the Joint European Torus.
Yasushi Ono
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 27 | Number 3 | April 1995 | Pages 369-373
Compact Torus (Field-Reversed Configuration, Spheromak) Concepts | doi.org/10.13182/FST95-A11947108
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A novel slow formation method of field-reversed configuration (FRC) has been developed by magnetic reconnection of two force-free spheromaks with opposite toroidal magnetic field. The merging process cancels their opposite magnetic helicities, realizing a non-Taylor relaxation from the force-free state to the high-β FRC state with zero helicity. A significant increase in the ion temperature has been documented up to 180eV during this fully anti-parallel reconnection. The dissipated toroidal magnetic energy of the merging toroids is transformed mostly to the ion thermal energy, revealing a unique relaxation mechanism to the high-β equilibrium. The merging toroids are found to relax either to an FRC or to a new spheromak, depending on whether their total helicity is larger or smaller than a critical value.