Reversed‐field pinch stable 8 msec

Tokamaks are certainly in the vanguard of the quest for plasma ignition in magnetic‐confinement fusion experiments. Nevertheless, the persistent concern that technological difficulties may ultimately render tokamaks of present‐day design impractical as power reactors has encouraged a broad search for alternative magnetic‐confinement concepts. One such alternative, the reversed field pinch (RFP), is an axisymmetric toroidal scheme very much like the tokamak. But the differences between the two could eventually prove to be of considerable practical significance.