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neutral beam injection

(Science: radiobiology) This is one of the fundamental plasma heating methods. A particle accelerator is used to create fast ion beams (the particle energies are on the order of 100 keV), the ion beam is then passed through a neutral gas region, where the ions neutralise via charge-exchange reactions with the neutral gas. The neutralised beam is then injected into a magnetically confined plasma. The neutral atoms are unaffected (not confined) by the magnetic field, but ionize as they penetrate into the plasma. The high-energy ions then transfer some of their energy to the plasma particles in repeated collisions, and heat the plasma.