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Defense Intelligence Reference Document Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Fusion

Defense Intelligence Agency · 72 pages · text from the file's own layer

This Defense Intelligence Agency reference document, dated 10 March 2010, covers inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) fusion. It was produced in FY 2009 under the DIA's Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications (AAWSA) program. The report focuses on work at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and reviews IEC basics, experiments, theory and applications such as neutron sources, explosives detection and space propulsion. It concludes by proposing a breakeven experiment for p-11B fusion that uses a hydrogen plasma simulation.

  • p. 2 …a series of advanced technology reports produced in FY 2009 under the Defense Intelligence Agency, ~(b…
  • p. 11 …the ongoing work by others, notably at EMC2 on the Bussard Polywell device or the advanced…
  • p. 30 …In the jet thruster concept the plasma target at the center of the chamber, created by…
  • p. 31 UNCLASSIFIED/;'P81il 8PPll!ltllt ~81!! 8HLV An added long-term potential advantage of developing the IEC…
  • p. 40 …Momota, "Advances in Cylindrical IEC Neutron Source Design for Driven Sub-Critical Operation," to be published…
  • p. 51 …the claim that due to its beam-like non- Maxwellian plasma, the IEC can burn "advanced…
  • p. 56 …Pulsed Power for the Inspection Station Advanced materials and methods are used in its design to…
  • p. 59 …The development of this advanced fuzzy logic system is patterned after a methodology developed for the…
  • p. 62 …Note that this is even true with the Tokamak using a very "advanced" conceptual design well…
  • p. 67 …of the unique ability of the IEC to use non-Maxwellian plasma to burn advanced fuels…
  • p. 69 …projects have continued to advance IEC basic physics understanding to the point where a pathway to…
  • p. 72 …Also the chamber wall must incorporate advanced cooling methods to handle the large surface heat loads…
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Figure 4.3. Plot of the Q-value (including electron losses) as a Function of (a) Sma, and y with fe= 10·3 ,
(b) Smax and fe with y =5, (c) Sma. and fe with y =100, and (d) Smax and Eo with y= 5 and fe =10-3 • These
plots have been obtained for Eo =100 keV [except (d)], 9b =0.01, and E, =l.04. (Nomenclature is defined in
Reference 4.2).
The source to sink issue noted several times here can be explained as follows. Two
opposite limits of this kind of solution are depicted in Figure 4.4. The realization of
either of these limits depends on the equilibrium between two competing effects,
namely up-scattering of the Maxwellian ion component confined in the well (which
increases as the Maxwellian temperature increases and tends to empty the well), and
down-scattering of the beam (which tends to fill it). The relative importance of these
effects is directly related to the strength relatives of the source and the sink. They are
characterized here by Smax = maximum value of the ion source, and t = ion
replacement time, respectively. Thus, weak sinks and strong sources will result in a
large beam population, increasing the beam down-scattering rate and hence increasing
"effective" Maxwellian temperature, given in the dotted line profile in Figure 4.4.
Conversely, weak sources and strong sinks will result in a small beam population, thus
decreasing the beam down-scattering rate and resulting in lower Maxwellian
temperatures, leading to the solid line profile in Figure 4.4.
37
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Report, from the dia collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 72 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.