Some estimates of mirror plasma startup by neutral beam heating of pellet and gas cloud targets

Hot plasma buildup by neutral beam injection into an initially cold solid or gaseous target is found to be conceivable in large mirror machine experiments such as 2XIIB or MFTF. A simple analysis shows that existing neutral beam intensities are sufficient to ablate suitable targets to form a gas or vapor cloud. An approximate rate equation model is used to follow the subsequent processes of ionization, heating, and hot plasma formation. Solutions of these rate equations are obtained by means of the ''GEAR'' techniques for solving ''stiff'' systems of differential equations. These solutions are in rough agreement with the 2XIIB stream plasma buildup experiment. They also predict that buildup on a suitable nitrogen-like target will occur in the MFTF geometry. In 2XIIB the solutions are marginal; buildup may be possible, but is not certain