The Tormac V experiment

Tormac (Toroidal Magnetic Cusp) is a plasma confinement concept combining the favorable MHD stability properties of a cusp geometry with the good particle confinement inherent to closed field geometry, A Tormac plasma has two regions: an interior region in which a toroidal bias or studding field is embedded, and an exterior or surface region confined by mirror trapping along open field lines. The combination of these two regions is expected to lead to a configuration having confinement substantially superior to that of a mirror. and to allow the plasma to be stable at high {beta}. The Tormac V experiment is an attempt to establish such a configuration and to investigate characteristic behavior of the Tormac plasma. In this paper we describe the Tormac concept. the Tormac V experimental set-up. and the results obtained.