A similar concept is being attempted by TAE Technologies, formerly Tri-Alpha Energy (TAE), based largely on the ideas of Norman Rostoker, a professor at University of California, Irvine. Early publications from the early 1990s show devices using conventional intersecting storage rings and refocussing arrangements, but later documents from 1996 on use a very different system firing fuel ions into a field-reversed configuration (FRC).
The FRC is a self-stable arrangement of plasma which geometry looks like a mix of a vortex ring and a thick-walled tube. The magnetic fields keep the particles trapped between the tube walls, circulating rapidly. TAE intends to first produce a stable FRC, and then use accelerators to fire additional fuel ions into it so they become trapped. The ions make up for any radiative losses from the FRC, and inject more magnetic helicity into the FRC to keep its shape. The ions from the accelerators collide to produce fusion.
When the concept was first revealed, it garnered several negative reviews in the journals. These issues were explained away and the construction of several small experimental devices followed. , the best-reported performance of the system is approximately 10 away from breakeven. In early 2019, it was announced that the system would instead be developed using conventional D-T fuels and the company changed its name to TAE.