[zionpi]

“We hope to see first plasma in five years. That will only be a short plasma - lasting a few milliseconds” this is a quote from original article.I was wondering why `few milliseconds` can make such a huge impact?What does this `few milliseconds` plasma mean?

[lambdatronics]

You gotta start somewhere! The plasma discharges will eventually last several minutes, but they will 'exercise' the machine very carefully/gradually over the course of a few years to be sure that nothing breaks.

[willis936]

In MCF machines plasmas are made by heating gas through RF (gyrotrons) or momentum (NBI). Both gyrotrons and NBI are very expensive, complicated, high power machines with big subsystems that go into them. Bringing on all of the heaters and diagnostics take time. Wall conditioning takes time. The first plasma is before most of the necessary systems are up. It’s a demonstration that the machine is built.