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Magnetic confinement fusion (MCF) is an approach to generate thermonuclear fusion power that uses magnetic fields to confine fusion fuel in the form of a plasma. Magnetic confinement is one of two major branches of controlled fusion research, along with inertial confinement fusion .
Within the field of magnetic confinement experiments, there is a basic division between toroidal and open magnetic field topologies.Generally speaking, it is easier to contain a plasma in the direction perpendicular to the field than parallel to it.
The basic idea of super-high magnetic fields as a path to fusion had been considered as early as the 1950s by Andrei Sakharov, who proposed imploding metal liners to produce the required field. The concept was not picked up until the 1960s, when Velikhov began small-scale experiments.
The race toward nuclear fusion, the near-limitless energy source that powers our Sun, is quickly becoming a packed field.Many laboratories leverage tokamaks to confine plasma and induce nuclear ...
The FRC was first observed in laboratories in the late 1950s during theta pinch experiments with a reversed background magnetic field. [3] The original idea was attributed to the Greek scientist and engineer Nicholas C. Christofilos who developed the concept of E-layers for the Astron fusion reactor.
In a now-famous talk on fusion in 1954, Edward Teller noted that any device with convex magnetic field lines would likely be unstable, a problem today known as the flute instability. [6] The mirror has precisely such a configuration; the magnetic field was highly convex at the ends where the field strength increased.
One rotating magnetic field pulse of the PFRC-2 device during an experiment. The Princeton Field Reversed Configuration (PFRC) is a series of experiments in plasma physics, an experimental program to evaluate a configuration for a fusion power reactor, at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL).
It is operated by the National Institute for Fusion Science, and is the world's second-largest superconducting stellarator, after Wendelstein 7-X. The LHD employs a heliotron magnetic field originally developed in Japan. An interior view of the vacuum vessel, which shows the LHD's superconducting coils.