The spheromak confinement device

A general definition of the spheromak is given. The nature of helicity conservation and its importance to the spheromak concept are discussed. The reactor advantages, stability properties, and beta limits are covered. Several successful formation schemes and steady state sustainment methods are presented. How they each inject helicity and to what extent they depend on helicity-conserving relaxation is discussed. What helicity conservation tells us about relaxation and what it does not tell us is covered. The major outstanding spheromak issues are presented. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.