An embodiment of the magnetized target fusion concept in a spherical geometry with stand-off drivers

Summary form only given. An innovative fusion scheme, embodying the principles of magnetized target fusion (MTF), in which the initial magnetized target and a plasma liner containing a cold fuel layer are introduced into the reactor vessel in a stand-off manner, is discussed. Two compact toroids containing fusionable materials are introduced into a spherical reactor target chamber in a diametrically opposing manner. Embedded in the compact toroids are force-free magnetic fields in Woltjer-Wells-Taylor's state of minimum energy, which are known experimentally to be extraordinarily stable. They collide in the center to form an initial magnetized target plasma. A spherical distribution of plasma jets are then launched from the periphery of the vessel, coalescing to form a converging spherical plasma liner. On impact with the central plasma, the plasma liner sends a shock wave through it, shock heating it to some elevated temperature (above 100 eV) which sets the initial adiabat for subsequent compression. The high temperature immediately raises the electrical conductivity of the plasma to the extent that it traps the magnetic flux inside the central plasma, The central plasma is further compressed by the plasma liner and heated nearly adiabatically to conditions for thermonuclear burn, the magnetic flux being compressed with it. The thermal loss rate, greatly reduced by the high magnetic fields, are sufficiently low that the compression heating can be achieved relatively slowly using plasma jets with velocity of the order of 10-50 cm per microsecond, velocities which have been achieved in the laboratory using electromagnetic acceleration.