State of stellarator research

The present state of stellarator research in the world is assessed. Stellarators have recently been shown to be extremely effective toroidal magnetic confinement systems with high energy confinement times, flat density and temperature profiles and qs at the limiter that can be of the order of 0.5. In addition, currentless operation is effective and permits the establishment of the confining fields before plasma is introduced. No disruptive instabilities have ever been reported by present day ohmically-heated stellarators when the helical rotational transform is large enough to outweigh the current rotational transform. (U.K.)