AAWSAP DIRD, Aneutronic Fusion Propulsion II, November 2010

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.

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Figure 17. Progress in Tokomak Magnetic Confinement Fusion
The issues of tokomaks as a potential source of fusion power are dramatized by the
recent graphic (Figure 18) published in the American Nuclear Society's Fusion Energy
Division Newsletter (Dec 2007) depicting the GE Next-Generation Boiling-Water Reactor
(Economic Simplified BWR) . The reactor, which costs about $3 bill ion, will produce
enough thermal energy to generate 1.2 GWe (gigawatt electrical), . Its fuel rods will have
to be replaced every 3 years. In an operating fusion tokamak reactor, the first wall and
neutron absorbing and tritium breed in g thermal blanket would have to be replaced
every 5 years . Two orders of magnitude more volume and an extremely complex
thermal transport system will be at a considerably greater cost and down time for the
plant. With the recent and predicted escalation of fossil fuel costs, nuclear power has
become economically competitive with coal and oil plants. It is clear that a tokamak
power plant could not compete with the fission plant at current market energy prices.
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