The Tormac V experiment

Tormac (T o r o i d a l M a g n e t i c C u s p) is a plasma confinement concept combining the favorable magnetohydrodynamic stability properties of a cusp geometry with the good particle confinement inherent to closed field geometry. A conceptual Tormac plasma has two regions; an interior region in which a toroidal bias or stuffing field is embedded, and an exterior or surface region confined by mirror trapping along open field lines. The combination of these two regions is expected to lead to a configuration having confinement substantially superior to that of a mirror, and to allow the plasma to be stable to high β. The Tormac V experiment is an attempt to establish such a configuration and to investigate the characteristic behavior of the Tormac plasma. The Tormac concept, the Tormac V experimental setup, and the results are described.