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This Defense Intelligence Reference Document, dated 1 November 2010, was prepared by the Defense Intelligence Agency's Defense Warning Office under the Advanced Aerospace Weapons System Applications program. It reviews fusion plasma physics, confinement methods and propulsion concepts that use aneutronic fusion fuels such as hydrogen and boron-11. It concludes that pulsed DPF or IEC thrusters may replace satellite ion thrusters in the near term. It also finds that aneutronic fusion propulsion will not be practical beyond the solar system without breakthrough propulsion physics.
From the source: Release of 2026-09-18 Incident: 11/1/10, 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 revisits aneutronic fusion propulsion in a more systems-oriented manner, arguing that fusion concepts using low-neutron fuels such as proton-boron or helium-3 could become attractive for space propulsion because they reduce shielding burdens and may support direct conversion of charged-particle energy into thrust or onboard power. The report reviews the relevant fusion plasma physics and focuses on several candidate confinement approaches, then connects those concepts to possible applications in near-space, orbital, and interplanetary propulsion. It presents the most plausible nearer-term use as very high-power electric or plasma propulsion for satellites and deep-space missions rather than atmospheric flight or interstellar travel, while emphasizing that major obstacles remain in ignition, sustained confinement, system mass, power handling, fuel storage, launch integration, and end-to-end engineering.
UNCLASSIFIED/ /FOR OFFI&ilAl l::181: 8HL'f Field ReversedA spheromak is a tokamak in a Plasma Configuration Separatrix spherical chamber that uses only a sin gle set of coils in conjunction with plasma currents that self-generate a re confining magnetic field. However, -this design is thought to be less promising than the previously described technologies for generating significant fusion energy. An FRC (field-reversed configuration) Axial Fi~oils Closed Pololdal Open Magnetic Field Line Field Lineis an elongated plasma ellipsoid conducting an azimuthal current that Figure 4. Field-Reversed Configuration reverses the direction of an externally applied magnetic field. The resultant field provides toroidal plasma confine ment without requiring a toroidal vacuum vessel or coil set (shown in Figure 4 ). It has the potential of achieving much higher stable plasma configurations in much smaller volumes than a tokamak using supplementary laser or neutral beam heating from its ends. The FRC is susceptible, however, to a tilting mode instability where the confined plasma ring can flip over and fly apart as the previously confining forces shift radially outward rather than inward. This can be overcome by magnetic field design. A significant augmentation of power density for th is concept is to inject the fuel through the ends with high energy ion or neutral particle beams. Such a system can allow the very high plasma energy density, temperatures, and confinement times needed for aneutronic fusion. INERTIAL CONFINEMENT Inertial confinement fusion (ICF) is a process by which nuclear fusion is initiated by heating and compressing a fuel target. Such targets are usually pellets conta ining a "fuel" of deuterium and tritium atoms. Typical pellets are about the size of a pinhead, holding ~10 mg of fuel. The process of compressing and heating the pellet is usually accomplished by one of two methods: using high-energy lasers or using particle beams (electrons or ions). The vast majority of ICF devices use lasers. The lasers heat the pellet's outer layer, which explodes this layer outward and produces a reaction force against the remainder of the target. The lasers either impact the pellet simultaneously from multiple symmetrically arranged directions or illuminate the inner wall of a metal cylinder (a hohlraum) containing the pellet (the hohlraum then produces thermal x-rays which impact the pellet). This force accelerates the fuel inward, sending shock waves into the pellet's center. If the shock waves are strong enough, they are able to compress and heat the fuel at the center to such an extent that fusion can occur. The released energy then heats the surrounding fue l, wh ich may also undergo fusion. In comparison with magnetic confinement, ICF results in much higher pressures, but at the expense of a much shorter confinement time. The goal of ICF is to get a sufficient percentage of the fuel to undergo fusion such that more energy is released than is used to produce the reaction. Early attempts, however, have demonstrated that ICF efficiency was much lower than expected. Recent advances in materials technology and techniques have shown that considerable improvements in performance are possible; such a test at the DOE National Ignition Test Facility (NIF) will use 50 TW of laser energy in 192 beams to compress a pellet to achieve ignition. UNCLASSIFIED/ /fOR: 8ffl@IAl l::ISE OHl?f 7
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Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 36 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.