346 Engineering Response to Climate Change
A density decreasing outward from the minor axis generates a current in a
direction to apply an inward force that restrains the plasma from expanding
in the radius; thereby conning it. It is still subject to other processes that can
cause smaller regions of plasma, or individual particles, to move outward.
9.2.2 Equilibrium, Stability, and Confinement
Plasma equilibrium and stability was an early challenge to conning
plasma. Toroidal devices, with few exceptions, achieved MHD equilibrium
by the rotational transform where magnetic eld lines spiral around the
minor radius, and achieved MHD stability by shear where magnetic eld
lines spiral at different rates at adjacent radii. This results in nonp ...