Toroidal Fusion Plasma with Powerful Negative Bias

Abstract

Imposition of a powerful electrostatic bias allows a dense uniform-pressure plasma to be held in a static equilibrium in a toroidal closed-magnetic-line system. A small wall current of 3.5-MeV $d-t$ alpha particles easily maintains the 6-MV/cm electric field necessary for controlled thermonuclear reaction conditions. As ions can be confined in an enormously deep energy well, the system lends itself also to production of highly stripped heavy nuclei.