Non-Thermal "Cool" Fusion and Developments for the Ignitor Program

The Ignitor Program [1] has produced the first complete design of a machine capable of approaching ignition regimes with normally known conditions and acceptable safety factors. The ability of machines in this class, that include TRIAM-1 the first high field superconducting machine, to produce well confined plasmas with a wide range of collisionalities, is shown to be suitable at accessing alternative regimes including “cool fusion” where the excitation of radially “captive” ballooning modes can provide an efficient energy transfer from reaction products to fusing nuclei. The superconducting MgB2 technology that Ignitor has pioneered for the equilibrium coils remains adopted with recent advances. A collaboration with CNR laboratories on near term high field superconducting magnets is undertaken relating to relevant European institutions. The connection with outstanding departments of the Sapienza University involves materials study for other machine components, advances on sections of the present design and the fabrication of the central post, the central solenoid and the vertical field coils.