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Theta-pinch, or θ-pinch, is a type of fusion power reactor design. The name refers to the configuration of currents used to confine the plasma fuel in the reactor, arranged to run around a cylinder in the direction normally denoted as theta in polar coordinate diagrams.
The FRC was first observed in laboratories in the late 1950s during theta pinch experiments with a reversed background magnetic field. [3] The original idea was attributed to the Greek scientist and engineer Nicholas C. Christofilos who developed the concept of E-layers for the Astron fusion reactor.
Screw pinch – A combination of a Z-pinch and theta pinch [15] (also called a stabilized Z-pinch, or θ-Z pinch) [16] [17] Reversed field pinch or toroidal pinch – This is a Z-pinch arranged in the shape of a torus. The plasma has an internal magnetic field. As distance increases from the center of this ring, the magnetic field reverses ...
These systems were originally referred to simply as pinch or Bennett pinch (after Willard Harrison Bennett), but the introduction of the θ-pinch (theta pinch) concept led to the need for clearer, more precise terminology. The name refers to the direction of the current in the devices, the Z-axis on a Cartesian three-dimensional graph. Any ...
The q profile in a reversed field pinch The poloidal field in a reversed field pinch. A reversed-field pinch (RFP) is a device used to produce and contain near-thermonuclear plasmas. It is a toroidal pinch that uses a unique magnetic field configuration as a scheme to magnetically confine a plasma, primarily to study magnetic confinement fusion.
By 1961 work on Z-pinch devices had largely ended, although some research continued on the related theta-pinch concept. [11] Tuck never restricted himself to the pinch concept, and he spent considerable effort on other concepts, which led to joking within Los Alamos about his apparently unfocused work. [12]
Toroidal machines can be axially symmetric, like the tokamak and the reversed field pinch (RFP), or asymmetric, like the stellarator.The additional degree of freedom gained by giving up toroidal symmetry might ultimately be usable to produce better confinement, but the cost is complexity in the engineering, the theory, and the experimental diagnostics.
However, the LSX used a method of forming FRCs called a theta-pinch, which does not allow FRCs to be further sustained and heated. The US Department of Energy funded the TCS program as an extension of LSX, in order to demonstrate the RMF method of sustaining FRCs formed via the theta-pinch method. [3]