Fusion is a field of believers, and I have believed in more than one machine. I spent a large part of my working life building tokamaks. Today the company I lead is building magnetic mirrors. This post explains that shift, and why I think it is the right choice for ASPL Fusion and for India.
Tokamaks, stellarators and magnetic mirrors are all magnetic-confinement devices. They differ in one basic decision: how the magnetic field lines are closed. A tokamak bends the field into a doughnut and drives a large current through the plasma to complete the magnetic cage. A stellarator also uses a doughnut, but twists the field with intricate three-dimensional external coils, so no plasma current is needed. A magnetic mirror does not close the field at all. It is a straight tube of plasma held between two regions of stronger field, built from simple circular coils, which reflect most particles back towards the centre.
Continue reading “Why We Chose the Magnetic Mirror”