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Magnetized Target Fusion collaboration and recent progress
| Author: | Intrator T. |
| Coauthor: | MTF collaboration |
| Institution : | LANL |
| Abstract text: | Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF) may be a low cost path to fusion, in a regime that is very different from, and intermediate between, magnetic and inertial fusion energy. It requires compression of a magnetized target plasma and consequent heating to fusion relevant conditions inside a converging flux conserver. To demonstrate the physics basis for MTF, a Field Reversed Configuration (FRC) target plasma has been chosen that will be translated axially to a region where it can be compressed. We show recent and improved FRC formation data, example deformable liner implosions, and a conceptual design for the upcoming translation experiments. We also describe a multi institution collaboration and some physics based estimates of the plasma behavior for this and other compression approaches. Our experimental research focuses on demonstrating MTF with the FRC, but many scientific issues lie on this path. The FRC is an elongated, self-organized compact toroid equilibrium that is extreme among magnetic configurations, apparently relaxed to a non force free state. There is high plasma ?~1, small toroidal field, probably cross-field diamagnetic current and flows, vanishing rotational transform, magnetic shear, helicity and anomalously large resistivity. Related fundamental plasma physics questions extend beyond MHD models, and are relevant to geophysical and astrophysical phenomena |
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