>>298524Well, from what I understood: we have a "coil" of plasma. Voltage is applied, which causes a current to flow in the plasma, which generates a magnetic field. Now, should the plasma be cooled sufficiently to revert to gas state, it will no longer be conductive, causing the magnetic field to disappear. However, as the magnetic field is dependant upon the current in the plasma, we could simply shut down that instead.
As for "dumping" the energy of the magnetic field, well, that's where things start sounding strange, with what I know of such things. Remove the current creating the magnetic field, and the field should simply disappear, no? The quench gun would seem to achieve this by heating the superconductor until it is no longer superconducting, at which point the current will be as good as shut off completely (as the resistivity of the conductor will most likely go from none to lots, with predictable results on the current). The only "energy dump" I could think of would be that if the voltage is still applied, a small current may still flow, but as the resistance is so large, the electrical energy put into the circuit will simply end up as waste heat, without producing much of a magnetic field. Also, as the magnetic field is a forcefield, it shouldn't contain any energy in itself, no? The energy would lie in the magnetisation of objects in/contributing to the field, and potential energy of magnetic objects in the field. And as there doesn't seem to be much matter around to magnetise... (There's the conductor, but the magnetism there is simply the movement of electrons, which will cease pretty much instantly if the voltage is removed).
I don't see how plasma could get the same huge jump in conductivity on it's own as a superconductor, so as we need an external "switch" anyway, we might as well use that to cut the voltage.
