an apparatus used in research into thermonuclear reactions, consisting of a toroidal vessel designed so that a plasma may be contained within it by a helical magnetic field. The magnetic field is produced by current-carrying coils
Word origin
C20: from stellar + (gener)ator
stellarator in American English
(ˈstɛləˌreɪtər)
US
noun
Physics
a device shaped like the figure 8 used to investigate the production of a controlled thermonuclear reaction by using changeable magnetic fields to confine a plasma