Primary Intelligence Asset

LANL AFRL FRC Lifetimes Longer Trap 2013

Declassified Public record OCR verified
INTEL

Executive Summary

Scientists improved the stability of a high-energy plasma ring used for fusion energy by adjusting magnetic mirrors to create a longer trapping area. This simple hardware adjustment nearly doubled the plasma's lifespan, moving the team closer to conducting a successful nuclear fusion test.
Analysis Confidence: High
ST_CODE: 4F4DE8

System Metadata

Source ID

DOC-LANL_AFR

Process Date

8/9/2026

Integrity Hash

SHA256-gpwlty00z...

Indexer Status

COMPLETE

Initializing_Secure_Viewer...
[ DOWNLOAD_ORIGINAL_ASSET ]

INVESTIGATIVE ANALYSIS

Summary

Scientists improved the stability of a high-energy plasma ring used for fusion energy by adjusting magnetic mirrors to create a longer trapping area. This simple hardware adjustment nearly doubled the plasma's lifespan, moving the team closer to conducting a successful nuclear fusion test.

Origin

The document is an abstract submitted by Glen Wurden of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to the American Physical Society (APS) for the Division of Plasma Physics 2013 meeting, representing a collaboration between LANL, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), NumerEx LLC, and several universities.

Purpose

The research sought to extend the lifetime of Field-Reversed Configuration (FRC) plasmas within the FRCHX experiment, a necessary step for achieving the plasma compression required for Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF).

Why It Matters

" This document highlights the collaborative nexus between the Department of Energy (LANL) and the Department of Defense (AFRL) regarding Field-Reversed Configuration (FRC) research. It demonstrates that FRC technology is a primary focus for Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF), which is often linked to both clean energy and advanced compact power sources for aerospace applications. The involvement of AFRL and NumerEx LLC suggests ongoing military interest in High Energy Density Laboratory Plasmas (HEDLP). "

Key Claims

  • › The FRCHX experiment utilized a 10-cm diameter, 30-cm long metal liner for plasma trapping.
  • › Trapped flux lifetimes were increased to a range of ~19μs to ~21μs after hardware adjustments.
  • › The research was supported by the DOE Fusion Energy Sciences office (Contract DE-AC52-06NA25396) and AFRL (Contract DE-AI02-04ER54764).
  • › Adjusting the entrance mirror downward 5 cm and the end mirror upward 5 cm increased the distance between dynamic mirror points to ~30 cm.
  • › The lifetime specifically in the trapping region improved from 8-11μs to 14-16μs.

Contribution to the Field

This document quantifies the specific lifetime improvements gained by extending the magnetic well length from ~20cm to ~30cm within a fixed 10-cm diameter metal liner hardware setup.

External Primary Sources (3)

Verified external sources that corroborate the claims in this document.

patent
US Patent 9,947,420 B2 — Magnetic field plasma confinement for compact fusion power
conference 2019
Recent Achievements in the C-2W Field-Reversed Configuration Experiment — APS DPP19
TAE Technologies
paper 2019-06-05
Formation of hot, stable, long-lived field-reversed configuration plasmas on the C-2W device — Nuclear Fusion
H. Gota et al.

Full Transcript

No transcript available.

Cited In (2 references)

Frequently Asked Questions

What is this document? ▾
Scientists improved the stability of a high-energy plasma ring used for fusion energy by adjusting magnetic mirrors to create a longer trapping area. This simple hardware adjustment nearly doubled the plasma's lifespan, moving the team closer to conducting a successful nuclear fusion test.
Where does this document come from? ▾
The document is an abstract submitted by Glen Wurden of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to the American Physical Society (APS) for the Division of Plasma Physics 2013 meeting, representing a collaboration between LANL, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), NumerEx LLC, and several universities.
What is the research purpose of this document? ▾
The research sought to extend the lifetime of Field-Reversed Configuration (FRC) plasmas within the FRCHX experiment, a necessary step for achieving the plasma compression required for Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF).
Where is this document cited in the investigation? ▾
This document is referenced in 2 places across the investigation: 1 Dossiers, 1 Research Rounds. See the "Cited In" section below for the complete list of pages that reference this document.