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Going Nuclear: Notes from the officially unofficial book tour
I work in the analytical labs at one of Europe’s oldest and largest nuclear sites: Sellafield, in northwestern England. I spend my days at the fume hood front, pipette in one hand and radiation probe in the other (and dosimeter pinned to my chest, of course). Outside the lab, I have a second job: I moonlight as a writer and public speaker. My new popular science book—Going Nuclear: How the Atom Will Save the World—came out last summer, and it feels like my life has been running at full power ever since.
Thomas C. Simonen
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 57 | Number 4 | May 2010 | Pages 305-311
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST10-A9491
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Recent results from Russia and Japan have sparked renewed interest in magnetic mirror concepts. The Russian Gas Dynamic Trap experiment achieved 60% beta in an axisymmetric magnetic mirror. The Japanese Gamma-10 experiment demonstrated the suppression of radial transport due to drift-wave turbulence. This paper describes the evolution of magnetic mirrors, identifies a number of methods to stabilize axisymmetric mirrors, and suggests areas of needed research. The simple axisymmetric configuration has applications ranging from a source for material testing with plasma and neutrons to a driver for fusion-fission hybrid to the possibility of a fusion power plant.