Lardenoit’s idea seems like more wishful thinking. No magnetic fields? In that case, what keeps the plasma from touching the wall of the sphere? Nothing, apparently. And when that happens, the ions pick up electrons, become electrically neutral, and whammo, no more plasma. Sorry, no fusion here.
The Maryland experiment seems reasonable: use centrifugal forces to augment the magnetic field, rather than replace it outright. Might lead to interesting results, but again it’s an experiment, not a reactor.
