David Kirtley

FRC, field reverse configuration programs, both at national labs.

There's actually a number of private companies now of people building field reverse configurations.

And they have some really unique properties.

But fundamentally, talking about the main difference, I described solenoid with magnetic fields throughout the center of that volume and plasma trapped

going back and forth.

But some other things can happen, which is really interesting.

And what they discovered early is if they have field going in one direction, so the plasma, the electrical current is going around the loop, and the plasma is going back and forth along this magnetic field line inside that solenoid, inside that theta patch.

But then they changed the direction of the magnetic field.

And this is what we call field reversal.

And this is really the key is that you start with the plasma going in one direction and then very rapidly you change the direction.

You change the direction and reverse the direction of that field.

And something really interesting happens, which is the plasma, this fusion fuel, these charged particles, which are trapped on the magnetic field lines that are moving back and forth,

you change the direction.

What that means is that you're trying to take that electrical current and that magnetic field and reverts its direction, flip it.

But it can't flip fast enough that the plasma is sitting there and you can't move the particles.

And so what's really interesting is what happens is that because the particles can't move, but you've now flipped the direction of the magnetic field, you've inverted it, something really, really unique happens, which is that the plasma itself reconnects internally.

And so now what you're left with is an outside magnetic field, an electrical coil, and inside the plasma, where now it was before it was moving along, it's now moving internally.

It sounds wild.

Mm-hmm.

You have to reverse the electrical current faster than a million degree, which is a very hot gas particle, can move.