Status and plans for the PFRC-2 device

The PFRC-2 is magnetized, steady-state, RF-heated plasma device on which research is performed to develop small, clean fusion reactors suitable for mobile power plants or propulsion of spacecraft throughout the solar system. With a duty of factor near 1{\%}, the PFRC-2 forms high-beta plasmas of up to 300 ms duration and radius to 8 cm with line-average electron density exceeding 5e12/cc and a minority electron temperature exceeding 600 eV. Up to 70 kW of RF heating power at 6 MHz has been applied using the RMF\textunderscore o method. The present maximum vacuum magnetic field is 300 G. Plans for the next year focus on ion heating to an average energy of 600 eV at a peak density of 1e13/cc. To achieve this, the vacuum magnetic field will be increased to in excess of 600 G, the RMF frequency reduced to below 2 MHz, and the RMF power increased to 200 kW corresponding to B\textunderscore RMF $=$ 15 G. At these parameters stochastic ion heating is predicted.