Abstract:
Michl Binderbauer for the TAE Team
TAE Technologies, Inc., Foothill Ranch, California
TAE Technologies (TAE) is pursuing a unique approach to magnetically confined fusion, pioneered by the
late Prof. Norman Rostoker. At its heart the concept relies on advanced beam-driven field-reversed
configuration (FRC) plasmas composed of energetic and well-confined particles produced by tunable-
energy neutral beam (NB) injection. TAE’s current experimental machine, C-2W (a.k.a. “Norman”), is the
world’s largest compact-toroid (CT) device. It produces record breaking, stable, high temperature
plasmas [1,2] dominated by injected fast particles and sustained in steady state, which is only limited by
the on-site energy storage. Advances in real-time control of plasma shape, position, fueling, and end
biasing [3], coupled with machine-learning algorithms for experimental optimization [4], enabled
significant improvements in plasma performance, macro-stability and reduction of turbulence. Extensive
efforts on machine optimization as well as plasma diagnostics and characterization of FRCs have been
made over the past few years. This presentation will provide an overview of TAE’s evolution from its start
at UCI to today, with emphasis on recent experimental campaigns and TAE’s plans for its next-phase
device, Copernicus.
REFERENCES
1. [1] H. Gota et al., Nucl. Fusion 59, 112009 (2019).
2. [2] H. Gota et al., Nucl. Fusion 61, 106039 (2021).
3. [3] J. Romero et al., IAEA FEC2023 Proceedings (2023).
4. [4] E.A. Baltz et al., Sci. Reports 7, 6425 (2017).
Zoom:
https://uci.zoom.us/j/93369218691?pwd=YlBjcjI1Mno3U095Rm9XaHJ6WlkwUT09