Lockheed Martin Corporation
Plasma Creation and Heating Via Magnetic Reconnection in an Encapsulated Linear Ring Cusp

Abstract:

In one embodiment, a fusion reactor includes an enclosure, one or more internal magnetic coils suspended within an interior of the enclosure and co-axial with a center axis of the enclosure, one or more encapsulating magnetic coils co-axial with the center axis of the enclosure, the encapsulating magnetic coils having a larger diameter than the internal magnetic coils, one or more mirror magnetic coils co-axial with the center axis of the enclosure, and one or more magnetic reconnection coils co-axial with the center axis of the enclosure, wherein the one or more magnetic reconnection coils, when pulsed by a power source, are disposed to reconfigure one or more magnetic fields within the enclosure. The reconfiguration, or magnetic reconnection, of the one or more magnetic fields is disposed to increase energy in the magnetic fields, thereby facilitating the conditions operable to generate plasma, and further, when the magnetic fields are collapsed, releasing the energy into the plasma.