The Centrifugally-Confined Mirror Machine as a Fusion Reactor
POSTER
Abstract
The centrifugal mirror is an under-studied and, until recently, lesser-known configuration for achieving magnetically-confined fusion.
Intial explorations of this concept were performed on the Ixion and PSP-2 experiments. Progress was made under the auspices of the Innovative Confinement Concepts program which funded the Maryland Centrifugal Experiment (MCX) [R. F. Ellis et. al. Phys. Plasmas 8, 2057 (2000)]. This was followed by an ARPA-E funded project also at Maryland, CMFX [C. Romero-Talamas APS 2023]. Finally, building upon the successes of the CMFX project [J. Ball et. al., 2025], GridFire is a spinout company dedicated to scaling this design and delivering a validated and verified centrifugal mirror on a rapid timeline.
We will present our roadmap, including modelling and preliminary designs along with the key physics we aim to validate in our next machine.
Intial explorations of this concept were performed on the Ixion and PSP-2 experiments. Progress was made under the auspices of the Innovative Confinement Concepts program which funded the Maryland Centrifugal Experiment (MCX) [R. F. Ellis et. al. Phys. Plasmas 8, 2057 (2000)]. This was followed by an ARPA-E funded project also at Maryland, CMFX [C. Romero-Talamas APS 2023]. Finally, building upon the successes of the CMFX project [J. Ball et. al., 2025], GridFire is a spinout company dedicated to scaling this design and delivering a validated and verified centrifugal mirror on a rapid timeline.
We will present our roadmap, including modelling and preliminary designs along with the key physics we aim to validate in our next machine.
Presenters
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Ian G Abel
University of Maryland College Park
Authors
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Ian G Abel
University of Maryland College Park