FPN06-50

Dimov Publishes Review of Magnetic Mirrors

June 11, 2006

Magnetic Mirrors were among the first approaches proposed to fusion power and still among the simplest. They are cylindrical in geometry but therefore have a problem of how to slow the otherwise rapid loss of fusion plasma out the ends of the device. In the mid-1970s scientists from Novosibirsk and Livermore independently proposed almost identical means for accomplishing the task of "plugging" the ends of magnetic mirrors. In Russia these geometries were called "ambipolar traps" while in the U.S. they were called "tandem mirrors."

Academician Gennady Dimov, a pioneer of the ambipolar trap, has published a review of research on ambipolar traps and tandem mirrors between 1978 and 2004 in the journal Physics-Uspekhi, Vol. 48, No. 11, 2005. PDF copies of the article (in english) are available from the author: dimov@inp.nsk.su

Dimov concludes that although "building an ambipolar D-T reactor will require a large amount of complicated experimental work," the "high longitudinal electron thermal conductivity is not an obstacle for the development of a fusion reactor based on the ambipolar trap."