Enhanced plasma performance in C-2W advanced beam-driven field-reversed configuration experiments

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TAE Technologies’ fifth-generation fusion device, C-2W (also called ‘Norman’), is the world’s largest compact-toroid device and has made significant progress in field-reversed configuration (FRC) plasma performance. C-2W produces record breaking, macroscopically stable, high-temperature advanced beam-driven FRC plasmas, dominated by injected fast particles and sustained in steady state, which is primarily limited by neutral-beam (NB) pulse duration. The NB power supply system has recently been upgraded to extend the pulse length from 30 ms to 40 ms, which allows for a longer plasma lifetime and thus better characterization and further enhancement of FRC performance. An active plasma control system is routinely used in C-2W to produce consistent FRC performance as well as for reliable machine operations using magnet coils, edge-biasing electrodes, gas injection and tunable-energy NBs. Google’s machine learning framework for experimental optimization has also been routinely used to enhance plasma performance. Dedicated plasma optimization experimental campaigns, particularly focused on the external magnetic field profile and NB injection (NBI) optimizations, have produced a superior FRC plasma performance; for instance, achieving a total plasma energy of ∼13 kJ, a trapped poloidal magnetic flux of ∼16 mWb (based on the rigid-rotor model) and plasma sustainment in steady state up to ∼40 ms. Furthermore, under some operating conditions, the electron temperature of FRC plasmas at a quiescent phase has successfully reached up to ∼1 keV at the peak inside the FRC separatrix for the first time. The overall FRC performance is well correlated with the NB and edge-biasing systems, where higher total plasma energy is obtained with higher NBI power and applied voltage on biasing electrodes. C-2W operations have now reached a mature level where the machine can produce hot, stable, long-lived, and repeatable plasmas in a well-controlled manner.