Documents / Report
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.
“Expedition X”1 page
UNCLASSIFIED/ ;'f81il 8PPll!ltllt t!l91!! SHL'I' move to high power IEC operations which are non-electrical. Deep space propulsion is used as an example. SPACE PROPULSION The IEC can be used for both near-term electrically driven thrusters for satellite operations (using the jet mode discussed earlier) and for fusion-powered deep space propulsion. The latter is illustrated in Reference 5.3 where a D- 3He reactor was utilized. This design concept is briefly summarized here. Figure S.S. Image of a Fusion II Spaceship, a 750-MWe IEC Fusion-Powered Manned Spacecraft With Ion Thruster Propulsion The IEC Spaceship "Fusion Ship II" is shown in Figures 5.5 and 5.6. (Note: Fusion Ship II represents an upgrade to high power of an earlier design termed "Fusion Ship I"). The overall spaceship length is 300 meters and the initial mass at mission start is 500 metric tons. Crew and avionics/computers are located in the central compartment at the forward end of the vehicle. The crew compartment uses 12-m diameter chamber and could contain a rotating centrifuge for sleep and exercise. A steerable antenna located on the side of this module provides communication. Twin 175-meter long assemblies, comprised of 5 D- 3He spherical IEC reactors and Traveling Wave Direct Energy Convertors (TWDECs) each, generate 1394 MW of 14. 7- MeV proton flux and 469-MW of thermal heat which is converted to 1197 MWe of RF electric power. 242 MW of the electrical power, then, re-circulates to run the reactors while 750 MWe is used to drive ion thrusters while the remainder of the energy is rejected as waste heat. A fusion fuel re-circulation and separation system is operated continuously to remove the fusion product 4 He from the D- 3 He reactants. Any unburned fuel is collected via the TWDEC energy convertors and recirculated back to the IEC reactors. This conserves the 54 UNCLASSIFIED//f81it 8ffl@IAI!: 1!181! &••1::Y
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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.