FRC Lifetime Studies for the Field Reversed Configuration Heating Experiment

The goal of the Field-Reversed Configuration Heating Experiment (FRCHX) is to demonstrate magnetized plasma compression. A requirement is that the trapped flux inside the FRC must persist long enough for the compression process to be completed, which is approximately 20 microseconds. Lifetime measurements of the FRCs formed for FRCHX show lifetimes of only 7 ~ 9 microseconds once the FRC has entered the capture region. Results from recent FRCHX experiments will be presented, and possible reasons for the lifetime limitations will be discussed along with several approaches for overcoming these limitations.

This work is supported by DOE-OFES.