Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 March 2009
The MAGO concept using the thermonuclear target with DT gas preliminary heating up to kiloelectronvolt range temperatures, which sufficiently enables the reduction of requirements of the compression rate (to 10 km/s) and the compression degree (to several hundreds) of the target, is investigated. The MAGO chamber with the Laval supersonic annular nozzle is used for plasma preheating. In this chamber magnetized plasma is accelerated up to 1000-km/s velocities and heated by collisionless shock waves. Systems with liner and magnetic compression are considered for the subsequent plasma compression. Energizing of a real-size system can be supplied by the magnetic flux compression generators with energy 100−500 MJ. Experiments close to the threshold of ignition can be conducted proportionally in 2−3 times reduced systems. Then the energy required will be 10–30 times less than in a real-size system.