SPHERICAL STELLARATOR OR HYBRID CONFIGURATIONS

The paper briefly summarizes a few recent results obtained for a novel concept of an ultra-low-aspect-ratio stellarator configuration called Spherical Stellarator (SS). Configurations of this type normally bene fit from the plasma current, thus making the stellarator-tokamak hybri ds of interest. Important regimes of SS operation are found that corre spond to internal generation of the strong plasma current at high beta via the bootstrap effect. An example is given when this pure stellara tor regime features a number of advantages such as high-beta equilibri a and good transport characteristics. The SS concept promises to be a better approach to a relatively inexpensive, efficient and safe fusion reactor than the other well-known magnetic confinement concepts.