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Interim Report of the Committee on a Strategic Plan for U.S. Burning Plasma Research (2018) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix A What Is Magnetic Fusion?
Pages 39-41

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From page 39...
... These first efforts, and the fusion research described in this interim report, employed strong magnetic fields to confine the hot gases that produce fusion power. By the 1960s, the invention of the laser led to a different approach in which lasers quickly heat a tiny quantity of fuel that explodes as it burns.1 This report deals only with magnetic fusion, which has had the best performance to date, leading to governmental discussions in the 1990s on how to advance magnetic fusion energy research as a world-wide endeavor -- what is now the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER)
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From page 40...
... Thus, the tokamak has three sources of magnetic field: the pinch current that mainly confines the pressure; the "poloidal" coils that bend plasma current into a circle; and the strong "toroidal field coils" that twist the current into a highly stable confined plasma. Fusion performance is measured by the pressure of the plasma, P, and the timescale for plasma energy escape, τE.
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From page 41...
... Additionally, the tandem mirror configuration uses neutral beam injection and electron cyclotron resonance heating to modify electrostatic potentials and reduce plasma leakage out the ends. The only linear device large enough to compete with tokamak performance was the superconducting Mirror Fusion Test Facility that completed construction at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in February 1986, only to be shut down before operating because of declining magnetic fusion budgets.
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Key Terms

  • fusion power
  • fusion energy
  • magnetic field
  • fusion reactions
  • magnetic fields

  • nuclear fusion
  • fusion test
  • inertial fusion
  • fusion research
  • strong magnetic

  • undergoing fusion
  • power density
  • magnet configurations
  • rev lett
  • burning plasma

  • plasma undergoing
  • improved confinement
  • phys rev
  • completed construction
  • sun confined

  • tokamak performance
  • reduce leakage
  • surrounding vessel
  • iter plasmas
  • declining magnetic

  • highly stable
  • toroidal magnet
  • miniature sun
  • plasma inside
  • difficult issues


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