China’s Xingneng Xuangang advanced technology company, built with the support of the University of Science and Technology of China, is developing a fusion reactor using a Fusion Reversal Configuration (FRC). FRC is somewhat different from the traditional tokamak and inertial confinement fusion methods in that it uses field reverse compression.
The reactor is a straight linear tube controlled at the end by magnetic mirrors, a technology that has been widely experimented with through the years. The problem with magnetic mirrors has generally been that the plasma would often leak out at the end of the tubes. To seal the open ends, the Chinese facility injects self-stable, torus-shaped FRC plasmas (compact toroids) directly into both extremities of the linear tube. These FRCs act as magnetic valves, presenting a reversed magnetic field gradient that naturally reflects escaping ions back into the central chamber.
