AAWSAP DIRD, Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Fusion, March 2010

This Defense Intelligence Reference Document, dated 10 March 2010, was prepared by the Defense Intelligence Agency's Defense Warning Office under the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program. It surveys the basics, experimental status, theory and possible uses of inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) fusion, with emphasis on work at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. It covers neutron sources, explosives detection and space propulsion. It ends by proposing a 12-gun hydrogen plasma experiment meant to show breakeven conditions for p-11B fuel.

From the source:Release of 2026-09-18 Incident: 3/10/10, Las Vegas, Nevada. Released with redactions. This document is a Defense Intelligence Reference Document (DIRD), a technical reference format used by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) to capture baseline knowledge on a specific topic for later analytic use. DIRDs are best understood as reference and synthesis products rather than as original research. It is one of 38 DIRDs produced under the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP) between 2009 and 2011. Because AAWSAP’s scope permitted a broad range of supporting topics, not every DIRD in the series directly concerns aerospace systems or future threat assessment. The following summary reflects the DIRD’s scope and framing at the time of writing and should not be read as implying current validation of the concepts discussed. This DIRD surveys inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) fusion, a relatively unconventional fusion concept that uses electric fields rather than the more established magnetic or laser-based approaches to confine ions, and it reviews both the underlying physics and the experimental work associated with the concept. The report emphasizes that IEC may have nearer-term value as a compact neutron, proton, or x-ray source and as a platform for studying experimental fusion approaches, while also presenting more ambitious possibilities such as aneutronic power generation and propulsion applications. At the same time, it makes clear that the concept remained far from practical fusion power, with experimental devices operating several orders of magnitude below breakeven and with major unresolved issues involving confinement, losses, grid damage, and scale-up. Overall, the document treats IEC as a technically interesting but still highly speculative path toward fusion energy, while suggesting that its more limited spin-off applications were more plausible in the near term than its long-range power generation or propulsion applications.

UNCLASSIFIED/ /fOR Offl@IAL ~SE 8,.Llf
• Tetryl (Nitramine, C7HsN sOs) with p = 1.93 g/cm 3.
• Landmine - includes plastic explosives, such as Semtex, which is made of ROX and
PETN, and C-4, which is made of ROX.
B. Nuclear Materials such as natural uranium (U -238) and weapon grade with enriched
(U-235). Testing can be done with this natural uranium which can be obtained without
special restrictions.
C. Drugs like Cocaine (C17H21 NO4 ) and Heroin ( C21 H23NOs ) are of high in C and H, low
in O and low-medium Cl densities .
O. Common articles such as ethanol alcohol/wine (C 2H5Q) with p = 0.789 g/cm3,
clothes like silk (C3H11N3Q5) with p = 0.789 g/cm3, and nylon (C5H11 NO) with p = 1.1
g/cm3, and metal utensils, including knives.
The list provides a guide for use of articles for simulation testing in the IEC inspection
station. Fortunately, the combination of sources in the integrated station provides good
coverage of this wide variety of items. Conventional single source units suffer " gaps" in
coverage.
Pulsed Power for the Inspection Station
Advanced materials and methods are used in its design to minimize weight and size.
This extends use of stationary units (e.g. at airports) to mobile platforms such as vans,
law enforcement vehicles or light military trucks . Figure 5.1 shows a block diagram of
the power control circuits .
Figure 5.1. Block Diagram of the IEC Pulsed Power System
The power is taken from the platform power system and can be either 12-48 VOC or
single phase 120 VAC. The high voltage power supply is a solid -state switch-mode
inverter followed by a voltage multiplier circuit that incrementally steps the voltage up
a series of capacitors fed by high voltage diodes. The energy storage unit is composed
of high voltage capacitor segments with a low series inductance and resistance. The
capacitor bank is charged and discharged at the pulse repetition rate. The custom
capacitor sections are engineered to withstand the mechanical stress caused by rapid
charge/discharge cycl ing. The nominal capacitor bank voltage is 120 kV at full pulse
power output. A triggered spark gap is used to switch rapidly a high-energy pulse of
current from the capacitor bank to pulse modulate the magnetron. The triggered gap is
a compound three-element spark gap design. The arc is sustained until the capacitor
UNCLASSIFIED/ /FOR OFFI&IAk W&E 8PtkY
49