In the "interesting links" section, the text to Bussard's patent may be found. The use of magnetic cusps outside the outer sphere are used to confine core plasma if I'm reading it correctly... too many magnents for me to deal with, in my opinion.
As for a normal Penning trap, I don't think it feasable outside the outermost sphere, and I think interiorly would contribute to a greater grid loss than in the normal IEC concept.
I want to look further into the FRC concept. I believe it uses a type of magnetic choke to trap an opposing source of electrons.
Created on Thursday, January 11, 2001 5:05 PM EDT by M Hecht