Disruptions

A sudden loss of plasma confinement; avoiding or mitigating them is a central tokamak safety task.

A disruption is a rapid, unplanned termination of the plasma current, dumping stored energy into the vessel and generating large electromagnetic forces. Managing disruption risk is a core part of tokamak engineering.

Linear machines like the tandem-mirror burner do not disrupt in the tokamak sense — an architectural safety advantage of the burner that Kronos notes explicitly.

A disruption chains a sub-millisecond thermal quench with a millisecond current quench, dumping heat on the wall, driving large electromagnetic forces through halo and eddy currents, and potentially generating runaway electrons. Managing disruption risk drives much of a tokamak's structural design — which is why the disruption-free tandem-mirror burner is architecturally attractive.