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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Chapter 6: Future Developments
NEAR-TERM DEVELOPMENTS
Near-term developments of fusion propulsion will include the timeframe from 2010 to
2020. It will leverage the privately funded developments in DPF, FRC, and IEC for
commercial fusion reactors, as well as the DOE developments of magneto-inertial fusion,
including magnetized target fusion and high-density plasma physics experiments.
During this timeframe, it is expected that one or more of these fusion concepts will
develop sufficient experimental data or even achieve sustained ignition breakthroughs
that will allow the technology push to proceed into aerospace propulsion applications.
The IEC thruster described in Chapter 4 is a near-term candidate to replace HCTs with
high l sp and thrust augmented by aneutronic fusion. At the same time, associated
technology development from the mainline DOE programs and ITER tokomak programs
will contribute to the import areas of the following:
• Super conducting magnets.
• Energy storage supercapacitors.
• Fuel storage systems.
• Fuel ion injection accelerators.
• Compact high-voltage converters.
• Direct ion energy converters.
• Plasma propulsion systems.
Experiments and system analyses to validate the applicability of aneutronic fusion
propulsion should be conducted early on, since they may bias the path taken for the
various reactor and propulsion combinations.
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