NCSX

Stellarator

The National Compact Stellarator Experiment (NCSX) is an uncompleted stellarator designed by PPPL. It had a quasi-axisymetrical magnetic field configuration and was planned to have a strong bootstrap current to contribute to the plasma confinement, similarly to tokamaks' operation principle. NCSX's construction began in 2004 but due to increasing financial requirements that exceeded the initial cost estimation, the project was cancelled in 2008. PPPL reports that at the time of cancellation, 80% of the major components of NCSX were already built or procured.