Round Table on Unconventional Approaches to Fusion Erice-1981

Properties and Phenomena: Basic Plasma Physics and Fusion Research in Postwar America

“…In fact, they have proved that it is possible to get money and make a decent living without deceiving. 105 My study suggests that Coppi's preference, or hope, was rarely a practical option for the plasma-physics community. The conception of basic physics developed by plasma physicists never attained the cultural cachet of that touted by high-energy physicists and cosmologists -the Big Questions conception -with policymakers, AEC administrators, the general physics community, and the general public.…”

The effect of helium impurity addition on current sheath speed in argon-operated plasma focus using a tridimensional magnetic probe

“…The plasma focus is a simple device that makes use of a self-generated magnetic field for compressing the plasma to very high densities (≈10 25 −10 26 m −3 ) and high temperature (1-2 keV;Filippov et al 1962;Mather 1964), and has been recognized as one of the most intense sources of fusion neutrons. The literature has often cited plasma focus as an alternative magnetic fusion device due to the intense bursts of neutrons it produces when operated in deuterium (Cloth and Conrads 1977;Brunelli and Leotta 1982). However, the plasma focus device is not only a source of fusion neutrons (Mather 1965;Soto et al 2008;Verma et al 2009) but it also produces highly energetic ions (Sadowski et al 1988;Ghareshabani and Mohammadi 2012), relativistic electrons (Patran et al 2006), and abundant amount of soft and hard X-rays (Zakaullah et al 2002a, b;Shafiq et al 2003;Bhuyan et al 2004;Mohammadi et al 2007).…”

Effect of paramagnetism on the global stability of straight screw pinches

“…On the other hand, a large number of pinch experiments, operating with q values less than one and nevertheless showing global stability over time periods exceeding the Alfve"n time, have been carried out in various laboratories since the very beginning of fusion research. Configurations that (more or less) belong to this category are, for instance, the 'stabilized pinches', the reversed field pinches, the Extrap configuration, the high density Z-pinches and the plasma focus experiments summarized in Refs [4][5][6][7]. In particular, the ultra low q (ULQ) toroidal and linear discharges recently reported by Kamada et al [8] and Brunsell et al [9,10] clearly indicate the existence of parameter regions of improved global stability that are not consistent with the Kruskal-Shafranov condition.…”