The successful development of fusion power will rely on the key technology of breeder blanket components. These components surround the fusion plasma, providing significant heat for power generation, and breeding the tritium fuel on which the plasma reaction depends. However, the technology for these components remains at a low technology readin…
The merging-compression method of plasma start-up in the Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak (MAST) involved the creation of two plasma tori with parallel currents, which merged at the vacuum vessel midplane due to their mutual attraction. Magnetic reconnection occurred in this process causing strong heating of both ions and electrons on millisecond timesca…
