Three-Dimensional Ideal Magnetohydrodynamic Stability on Parallel Machines

On the path towards a thermonuclear fusion reactor there are several technological and physical uncertainties to be understood and solved. One of the most fundamental problems is the appearance of many sorts of instabilities which can either enhance the energy outflow or even destroy the magnetic confinement of the fusion plasma. The knowledge of such instabilities is a prerequisite to a good understanding of the behaviour of actual experiments, and to the design of new devices. Most of the effort is devoted to the study of axisymrnetric toroidal configurations such as tokamaks or spheromaks and to helically twisted toroidal devices such as stellarators.