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US 4,314,879 AGranted
Production of field-reversed mirror plasma with a coaxial plasma gun
AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the United States Department of Energy
InventorsCharles W. Hartman, James W. Shearer
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The use of a coaxial plasma gun to produce a plasma ring which is directed into a magnetic field so as to form a field-reversed plasma confined in a magnetic mirror. Plasma thus produced may be used as a target for subsequent neutral beam injection or other similarly produced and projected plasma rings or for direct fusion energy release in a pulsed mode.
Claims11
A method of producing a field-reversed mirror plasma, comprising the steps of:
- producing a minimum B magnetic field of multi-Tesla strength in an evacuated plasma confinement apparatus by means of a magnetic mirror;
- generating a plasma ring by means of a coaxial plasma gun, said coaxial plasma gun possessing a solenoidal conductor configuration so as to produce a poloidal magnetic field, the inner component of said poloidal field being in a direction opposite to that of the magnetic field of the mirror so as to form a magnetic field-reversed configuration around the gun;
- accelerating the plasma ring by means of said coaxial plasma gun so that the plasma ring drifts out of and away from the coaxial plasma gun in a direction parallel to the coaxial plasma gun's longitudinal axis and toward said magnetic mirror, thus forming a field-reversed plasma ring upon reconnection of the magnetic field lines between said plasma ring and said coaxial plasma gun;
- and
- confining the field-reversed plasma ring in the minimum B magnetic well of the magnetic mirror thereby producing a field-reversed mirror plasma.
2 more elements
An apparatus for the production and confinement of a field-reversed mirror plasma, the apparatus comprising:
- an evacuated plasma confinement chamber;
- a magnetic mirror capable of producing a minimum B magnetic field of multi-tesla strength in the plasma confinement chamber;
- a coaxial plasma gun for generating and accelerating a plasma ring into the minimum B magnetic field of said magnetic mirror, said coaxial plasma gun possessing a solenoidal conductor configuration so as to produce a poloidal magnetic field, the inner component of said poloidal field being in a direction opposite to that of the magnetic field of the mirror so as to form a magnetic field-reversed configuration around the plasma gun;
- and
- means for confining the moving field-reversed plasma ring thus formed in the minimum B magnetic well of the magnetic mirror.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.