The Lawrence Livermore Laboratory has begun construction of its Mirror Fusion Test Facility, which is designed to investigate whether the plasma stability demonstrated in current experiments will continue (or even improve as predicted) on a larger scale. The $94‐million effort reflects new confidence in the confinement of plasmas by magnetic mirrors, which is the primary alternative in the US magnetic‐confinement program to the toroidal approach embodied by tokomaks. The confidence in mirrors stems partly from Livermore's success in controlling the growth of microinstabilities in their current 2XIIB device (see PHYSICS TODAY, November 1976, page 17). Hopes for the new machine are also based on the promising concepts of tandem mirrors and field reversal, either of which could further enhance the performance of the mirror fusion facility for the generation of power.
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March 1979
March 01 1979
Livermore constructs Mirror Fusion Test Facility
Physics Today 32 (3), 17–20 (1979);