Neutral Beam Injectors for the Magnetic Fusion Energy Program: Progress and Prognosis for the Future

The attainment of economic, safe fusion power has been described as the most sophisticated scientific problem ever attacked by mankind. The goal of the magnetic fusion program is to develop and demonstrate pure fusion central electric power stations for commercial applications. Neutral beam heating systems are a basic component of the tokamak and mirror experimental fusion plasma confinement devices. The development and application of multimegawatt neutral beam heating systems for PLT, PDX, ISX, TFTR, Doublet-III and MFTF experiments and a plan for developing higher power, longer pulse length, more efficient systems for future application is presented.