The stellarator has inherent advantages over the tokamak in achieving steady-state operation, especially due to its absence of disruptions and lack of need for current drive and the associated recirculating power. In recent years, there have been remarkable advances in the field of stellarator optimization, where precisely quasi-symmetric and precisely quasi-isodynamic magnetic configurations have been achieved with coils, allowing the neoclassical transport and energetic particle losses of stellarators to be reduced to levels comparable to those of tokamaks. At the same time, the development of high-temperature superconducting magnet technology will potentially double the magnetic field strength of stellarators. While these strong fields are expected to introduce new challenges, and while turbulent transport remains a common challenge for both stellarators and tokamaks, the combination of these physical and technological advances results in the expectation that stellarators will become a competitive approach to tokamaks for realizing steady-state fusion.
© 2023 The Authors.