The Ignitor experiment

Ignitor is a compact high magnetic field machine with tight aspect ratio, where large plasma currents can be produced. High plasma densities, strong ohmic heating, good confinement of particles and energy, adequate plasma purity, and stability against ideal and resistive instabilities are expected on the basis of the machine characteristics. The main goals of the machine are the confinement of the fusion produced /spl alpha/-particles and the heating of D-T plasmas up to ignition at relatively low peak temperatures (T/sub e0//spl sime/T/sub i0//spl lsim/15 keV) by ohmic heating. An ICRH system with P/sub RF//spl lsim/18 MW is adopted to accelerate the approach to D-T burn conditions and control at the same time the evolution of the current density, to produce significant fusion power in D-/sup 3/He plasmas, and to investigate the access to the high-/spl beta/ second stability region. The main machine components are described.