Fusion Research

The Alcutor Energy company is proposing a new approach to the thermonuclear plasma confinement by using alternating current (AC) drive in the plasma in a new type of toroidal system designed to exploits the electrodynamic effects that results from this AC drive to improve plasma stability.

The ultimate aim of the ALCUTOR research project is to generate the know how to exploit the advantages of nuclear fusion process for clean and affordable energy production. The objectives of Alcutor Energy company is to experimentally research the effects of alternating current drive on thermonuclear plasma, using both simulation of an ALCUTOR digital twin and also by construction of an experimental prototype.

ALCUTOR approach combine an electrically conductive wall around the plasma column with an alternating current induced along the plasma column. As a result of the induced eddy currents the wall will become repulsive to the plasma column and start working as a reactive magnetic vessel to the hot plasma. The AC nature of the current passing through the plasma column will also have a series of stabilizing effects on the plasma. The repeatedly rapid shift of the magnetic field lines limit the growing time of many instabilities which depend on the direction of these field lines. The plasma current itself will be repressed to the surface of the plasma column by the plasma high conductivity, this will prevent the volume flow of the plasma current, minimizing the resistive instabilities that come with it like the current filamentation and the magnetic islands. All these effects represent significant potential improvements over the state of the art magnetic confinement systems, like tokamak and stellarator, which lack such stabilizing effects.

Research Team

• Ing. Octavian Balaci (project/research coordinator)

• Ing. Ioan Socol (project management support)