Plasma-Wall Interactions in Tandem Mirror Machines

摘要

A description is presented of the plasma-surface interactions in thermal-barrier tandem-mirror machines. The thermal-barrier mode of axial confinement is an integral part of a tandem mirror, and it dictates the required plasma conditions, particularly at the surface of the plasma. For this reason, a qualitative discussion of the thermal barrier is presented first in Section 2. A brief description of the experimental configuration used in tandem mirrors to create the thermal barrier is then examined in detail in Section 3; the TMX-U and MFTF-B machines are used as specific examples. In Section 4, the relevant plasma-surface interaction issues are addressed, and experimental results from currently operating tandom mirror machines are included. Section 5 is both a summary and a discussion of future work concerned with plasma-surface interactions in tandem mirrors. (ERA citation 10:017606)