Construction Status of the Wisconsin HTS Axisymmetric Mirror

A public-private partnership between UW-Madison, MIT, Commonwealth Fusion Systems, and Realta Fusion are partnering to construct a new magnetic mirror (WHAM) at UW-Madison. The primary missions are achieving MHD- and kinetically- stable plasmas in a low-collisionality regime, where the particle confinement increases rapidly with average ion energy. Axisymmetric MHD stability is achieved via biasing end rings with respect to a central limiter (the vortex confinement scheme) and will allow modest plasmas in initial experiments, and electron temperature approaching 1 keV following the boost of the central magnetic field in the 2nd experimental phase. Scenarios have been developed for fast ion deposition via neutral beam injection whose energy can be increased via rf heating, and electron cyclotron resonant startup in the strong field device. Here we report on construction status of the machine, magnets, and major auxiliary heating systems.