Compression of compact tori by use of efficient drivers

The adiabatic compression of magnetized plasmas has come to the fore in recent times as an interesting hybrid of both inertial and magnetic fusion energy schemes, possibly allowing a means to reach fusion conditions in a compact pulsed system. Here we consider the compression both of the FRC and Spheromak, both with a coil compression [1] and with an imploding liquid liner [2]. Of critical importance in choice of target for compression is the scaling of the confinement with convergence, time-scale for compression and obtainable beta. We present analytic scaling relations for the compression schemes, and MHD simulations of the target plasmas in preparation for the design of a new experiment. \newline [1] P. M. Bellan Scalings for a Travelling Mirror Adiabatic Magnetic Compressor Rev. Sci. Instrum. 53(8) 1214 (1982) \newline [2] P. Turchi, D. J. Book, R. L. Burton, A. I. Cooper Stabilized Imploding Liner Research for High Magnetic Field Plasma Compression J. Magnetisim and Magnetic Materials 11 p373-375 (1979)