Physics Guy@physicsguyResearchers at General Atomics showed that helicon current drive works at the DIII-D fusion facility. The method was first proposed in the 1980s, but the equipment of that time could not make it work.
It uses high-frequency radio waves to generate a current inside a tokamak's hot plasma. Tokamaks driving current the usual way are limited to pulses of about 10 seconds at DIII-D, while most design studies say commercial reactors must run in steady state.
The team checked its statistics closely, and its next goal is to couple far more power into the helicon waves.
