PRELIMINARY EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS WITH THE MODEL A STELLARATOR
Experimental data on discharges are presented for the Model A stellarator, a pilot model designed to test whether confinement and heating of a plasma in a figure-8 tube is sufficiently proinising to warrant constructlon of a more elaborate model, whose purpose would be to test confinement under conditions of interest for thermonuclear reactors. Confinement in Model A is produced by a magnetic field of strength up to 1500 gauss. Electrical breakdown of the gas is produced by a high-frequency a-c electrical field of about 0.4 volt/cm. The discharges behave in rough agreement with theoretical expectations, provided that the diffusion to the wall produced by plasma oscillations is taken into account. Moreover, the magnetic field needed to produce confinement in the figure-8 is an order of magnitude lesss than needed in a race track, or torus. For air at a pressure of 4 x 10/sup -5/ mm of Hg and a magnetic field of 500 gauss, the discharge ionizes about one-fifth of the molecules near the center of the tube. Under these conditions the level of ionization is limited primarily by the a-c circuit rather than by the random plasma oscillations. (auth)
- Research Organization:
- Princeton Univ., N.J. Project Matterhorn
- DOE Contract Number:
- AT(30-1)-1238
- NSA Number:
- NSA-13-001221
- OSTI ID:
- 4285864
- Report Number(s):
- NYO-6042; PM-S-9
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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ALTERNATING CURRENT
BREAKDOWN
CONFIGURATION
CONFINEMENT
CONTROLLED THERMONUCLEAR PROCESSES
CURRENTS
DIFFUSION
ELECTRIC DISCHARGES
ELECTRIC POTENTIAL
FREQUENCY
HEATING
IONIZATION
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MEASURED VALUES
OSCILLATIONS
PLANNING
PLASMA
PRESSURE
STELLARATOR MODEL A
STELLARATORS
THERMONUCLEAR DEVICES
TUBES