Towards fusion reactor ignition: the adiabatic toroidal compression system

A major problem area in the study of the feasibility of fusion reactors is the attainment of hot dense plasma for experimental study and the determination of a heating scheme to reach ignition conditions in a reactor. Adiabatic compression in minor and major radius of Tokamak configuration plasmas was proposed as a means of reaching this end. The Adiabatic Toroidal Compressor (ATC) was built at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory to determine experimentally the feasibility of this technique. This paper describes the engineering features of this machine. Preliminary results indicate that compression heating is a possible method of assisting reaching fusion ignition temperatures.