By combining the benefits of magnetic and inertial fusion, a new fusion scheme is proposed. A plasma with a density of ≳1021 cm−3 is confined by the inertia of a heavy, cannonball-type metallic shell; its heat is insulated by a self-generated magnetic field of ≳100 T. The plasma and the magnetic field are produced by ablation due to direct impact of a laser (or particle) beam on solid fuel which constitutes the coating of the inner surface of the spherical metallic shell. Preliminary experimental and simulation results, using a 100 J CO2 laser on a target of a few millimetre parylene shell, gave nτ ≅ 5 · 1012 cm−3·S, with T ≅ 500 eV. A 1-D spherical hydrodynamic code, HISHO, with the radial heat conductivity reduced by an assumed magnetic field of 103 T, leads to ignition at an absorbed energy of the order of 20 MJ deposited during a confinement time of approximately 100 ns. These results provide supporting evidence for the feasibility of the scheme as a realistic reactor.
A pulsed high-current plasma beam under external and self-induced magnetic confinement in a linear device