New developments in magnetic confinement of plasmas

As of to day the largest effor in the field of thermonuclear fusion is devoted to the magnetic confinement approach. Within this approach, the Tokamak line which has received large attention since 1970, is being given the largest possible support, to reach ignition in the 1980´s. This goal is being approached with experiments sufficiently large to accomodate plasma currents beyond 3 MA but with a variety of magnetic and geometrical parameters. An optimization of these parameters would imply the knowledge of reliable scaling laws on confinement and heating of plasmas: unfortunately the present status of the experimental research does not offer a clear understanding of toroidally confined plasmas beyond 1÷2 keV of temperature or beyond 50 ms of confinement time. In the paper the present status, the progress envisaged for the near future, the milestones to be reached and the possible options are discussed with particular reference to the magnet development required.