ALTERNATE FUSION - CONTINUOUS INERTIAL CONFINEMENT

We argue that alternate fusion approaches should be pursued if: 1) They do not require magnetic confinement superior to tokamaks; 2) Their physics basis may be succinctly stated and experimentally tested; 3) They offer near-term applications to important technical problems; and 4) Their cost to proof-of-principle is low enough to be consistent with budget realities. An approach satisfying all of these criteria is presented, based on continuous inertial confinement. In such an approach, the inertia of a nonequilibrium plasma produces concentrations of plasma density. Recent theoretical developments[1] indicate that fusion gain of order unity or greater may be produced in a system as small as a few mm radius! Confinement is that of a nonneutralized plasma. A pure electron plasma with a radial beam velocity distribution is absolutely confined by an applied Penning trap field. Spherical convergence of the confined electrons forms a deep virtual cathode near r = 0, in which thermonuclear ions axe absolutely confined at useful densities. We examine the equilibrium, stability, and classical relaxation of such systems. A sketch of immediate and long-term experimental opportunities is given.