From Wide Support for High Field Compact Experiments to Popularity, to Damnatio Memoriae

By now studies of the characteristics of ignited plasmas and of the requirements of power producing reactors have led to conclude that operating at ignition or near it is necessary for a practically useful fusion reactor. The confinement scaling laws, that were identified originally when the line of high field compact experiments began to be proposed in order in order to investigate igniting plasmas [1], have been rediscovered and confirmed [2]. Both “Damnatio Memoriae” and “Renovatio Memoriae” [2] episodes have occurred in this context as well as in regard to the first introduction of high field superconducting magnet technology [3] in fusion research. The record confinement parameters, beginning to approach the ideal ignition conditions, obtained by the Alcator C Mod machine have validated the perspectives of success of the Ignitor experiment [3]. Relevant developments for the High Field Compact line of experiments, including the investigation of D-D and D-$^{3}$He burning plasmas, are discussed. [1] Coppi, B. AIP, 1721, 1, 020003‐1 (2017). [2] Costley, A.E., et al., Nucl. Fus. 56, 066003 (2016). [3] Coppi, B. et al., Nucl. Fus. 55, 053011 (2015).