Interactions of high energy plasma clusters with a longitudinal magnetic field

Considerable progress has been made in the area of designing and studying powerful coaxial plasma accelerators. It is known that the efficiency of such devices to convert electric energy stored in the capacitor banks into kinetic energy of dense high temperature plasmas is rather high (30 /50%). The MK-200 plasma accelerators in operation at the Kurchatov Institute allow generation of plasma flows with the following parameters: the total amount of particles is 1020/1022 for the density of 1016/5 1017cm-3, Tsub(e)-10/50 ev, and plasma velocity (2/8).107cm sec-1. The kinetic energy of such flows is greater than 100 kJ, and the stagnation temperature reaches 1/1.5 kev. Both the calculations and experimental data obtained with these accelerators [1] indicate that the plasma parameters could be subsequently improved. Progress in injector design has increased the feasibility of a fusion reactor in which plasma is heated outside the confinement region. (U.K.)