Y the Role of Z - Pinches and Related Configuration in Magnetized Target Fus I on Irvin R . Lindemuth , Xpa Fourth International Conference of High Density Z - Pinches Vancouver

Magnetically driven z-pinch liners coupled with z-pinch plasma formation schemes may make the achievement of controlled fusion conditions in the laboratory possible in a shorter time frame and at much lower cost than with any other approach. As discussed in these proceedings (l), z-pinches were one of the earliest candidates to heat a deuterium-tritium @-T) plasma to thermonuclear conditions. Unfortunately, violent instabilities prevented the early approaches from achieving the goal of controlled fhion, and fusion in the laboratory has been an elusive goal for more than four decades. As many different approaches have been tried and abandoned, controlled fusion research has evolved into two mainline approaches, magnetic confinement (WE, or magnetic fbsion energy), as now embodied primarily in tokamaks, and inertial confinement fksion (ICF), as now embodied primarily in laser driven targets. Each approach has reached a fknding crossroads, with proponents of each proposing two multi-billion, multi-year next-generation facilities, ITER (International Toroidal Experimental Reactor) for MFE and NIF (National Ignition Facility) for ICF. Although many approaches have been tried in the four decades or so of fusion research, the plasma conditions that must be achieved have remained essentially unchanged. In general, these conditions are stated as an ion temperature, Ti, greater than 4 keV and either a number-densitykonfinement-time product, nz, greater than 1014 skm3 (MFE) or an areal density, pR, greater than 0.4 gkm'. It is the inability of any approach to obtain all of the required conditions simultaneously that has frustrated fusion researchers, and even after forty years of increasing knowledge about the behavior of plasmas, there remains no guarantee that nextgeneration machines, after a major capital investment, will finally achieve the long sought goal.