Dynomak

Two colored model drawings, blue on the left, and red on the right, showing a series of more tangled chaotic disordered spirals in blue, changing to less tangled, more orderly spirals in red.
A model showing the formation of a spheromak from chaotic start. A dynomak is a spheromak formed by injecting magnetic flux.

Dynomak is a spheromak[1] fusion reactor concept developed by the University of Washington using U.S. Department of Energy funding.[2][3]

A dynomak is a spheromak that is started and maintained by magnetic flux injection. It is formed when an alternating current is used to induce a magnetic flux into plasma. An electric alternating current transformer uses the same induction process to create a secondary current. Once formed, the plasma inside a dynomak relaxes into its lowest energy state, while conserving overall flux.[4][5] This is termed a Taylor state and inside the machine what is formed is a plasma structure named a spheromak. A dynomak is a kind of spheromak that is started and driven by externally induced magnetic fields.

  1. ^ D.A. Sutherland, T.R. Jarboe et al., "The dynomak: An advanced spheromak reactor concept with imposed-dynamo current drive and next-generation nuclear power technologies", Fusion Engineering and Design, Volume 89, Issue 4, April 2014, pp. 412–425
  2. ^ Michelle Ma, "UW fusion reactor concept could be cheaper than coal", University of Washington, October 8, 2014
  3. ^ Evan Ackerman, "Inside the Dynomak", IEEE Spectrum, November 26, 2014
  4. ^ Kaptanoglu, Alan A., et al. "Advanced modeling for the HIT-SI Experiment." arXiv preprint arXiv:2003.00557 (2020).
  5. ^ Taylor, J. Brian. "Relaxation of toroidal plasma and generation of reverse magnetic fields." Physical Review Letters 33.19 (1974): 1139.