Proposed 'reconnection thruster' to propel spacecrafts

It doesn't yet formally have a proper name but I decided to call it the 'reconnection thruster' because I personally think that would be the most appropriate name for such a proposed device since it uses what is conventionally called 'magnetic reconnection' to propel ions in plasma out of a spacecraft to provide thrust i.e. propel the spacecraft.

https://phys.org/news/2021-01-concept-rocket-thruster-exploits-mechanism.html
"...New concept for rocket thruster exploits the mechanism behind solar flares
...
The device would apply magnetic fields to cause particles of plasma, electrically charged gas also known as the fourth state of matter, to shoot out the back of a rocket and, because of the conservation of momentum, propel the craft forward. Current space-proven plasma thrusters use electric fields to propel the particles.

The new concept would accelerate the particles using magnetic reconnection, a process found throughout the universe, including the surface of the sun, in which magnetic field lines converge, suddenly separate, and then join together again, producing lots of energy. Reconnection also occurs inside doughnut-shaped fusion devices known as tokamaks.

Current plasma thrusters that use electric fields to propel the particles can only produce low specific impulse, or speed. But computer simulations ... showed that the new plasma thruster concept can generate exhaust with velocities of hundreds of kilometers per second, 10 times faster than those of other thrusters.

..."Long-distance travel takes months or years because the specific impulse of chemical rocket engines is very low, so the craft takes a while to get up to speed," she said. "But if we make thrusters based on magnetic reconnection, then we could conceivably complete long-distance missions in a shorter period of time."

...the new thruster produces movement by ejecting both plasma particles and magnetic bubbles known as plasmoids. The plasmoids add power to the propulsion and no other thruster concept incorporates them.

...unlike current thruster concepts that rely on electric fields, the magnetic fields in Ebrahimi's concept allow the plasma inside the thruster to consist of either heavy or light atoms. This flexibility enables scientists to tailor the amount of thrust for a particular mission. "While other thrusters require heavy gas, made of atoms like xenon, in this concept you can use any type of gas you want," Ebrahimi said. Scientists might prefer light gas in some cases because the smaller atoms can get moving more quickly.

Raitses and students are also investigating the use of tiny Hall thrusters to give small satellites called CubeSats greater maneuverability as they orbit the Earth.

...Ebrahimi stressed that her thruster concept stems directly from her research into fusion energy. "This work was inspired by past fusion work and this is the first time that plasmoids and reconnection have been proposed for space propulsion," Ebrahimi said. "The next step is building a prototype!"
..."

@humy
Sounds really promising but the only thing I can see that would stop such a development is the amount of energy required to do the reconnection deal.
Was there anything in that piece speaking to how much energy it takes to do that? I didn't see anything about energy requirements.

We know, for instance, we can accelerate ions with electric fields but the energy needed to even get 1/10th of a G of accel requires megawatts and we are not going to have that level of power for decades.

@humy
If my memory is correct you need current to generate a magnetic field, and the bigger the current the stronger the field. So a few Kilo-amps should be good, and a few Mega-amps even better. Now with a superconductor it should be possible to achieve perhaps Giga-amps or Tera-amps, even if the voltage is extremely low. But how do you generate a current source of such immensity?

@bunnyknight said
@humy
But how do you generate a current source of such immensity?

I'm not the expert on that here and don't really know but I think the OP link indicates it has already been done in a tokamak with assertions such as;
"..."During its operation, this tokamak produces magnetic bubbles called plasmoids that move at around 20 kilometers per second, which seemed to me a lot like thrust."
..."
but that was using fusion power and not sure if it would be a stretch to assume any of these 'reconnection thrusters' would use actual fusion power.

@humy
Technically that is not fusion power since they have yet to achieve breakeven, the energy input equaling the output and of course the goal is to make that ration 20 to 1, say 100 mw in and 2 gigawatts out.

But it is easier to do fusion on an isolated spacecraft than trying the same thing on the ground like ITER and the rest.

So is there any math showing there would be more thrust/watt than any of the other electric propulsion methods?

THAT would be a breakthrough if such magnetic acceleration is more efficient than electric propulsion.