Analysis of the retrograde hydrogen boron fusion gains at inertial confinement fusion with volume ignition

Scheffel, Chr.; Stening, R. J.; Hora, Heinrich; Höpfl, R.; Martínez-Val, José M.; Eliezer, S.; Kasotakis, G.; Piera, M.; Sarris, E. T.

doi:10.1017/s0263034600011149

Cited by 20 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 16 publications

(4 reference statements)

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“…9)) is ideal for high-efficient direct conversion into electricity with minimum heat pollution or after redirecting of the alphas with magnetic fields for space propulsion. However, it was evident from the beginning that this fusion reaction is very much more difficult than using DT fusion fuel, as seen from the spherical laser compression of p-11 B needing densities of 100,000 times the solid state (Hora, 2002) and input laser pulses of several 10MJ energy to produce modest energy gains per laser energy of less than 25 (Scheffel et al, 1997). However, it was evident from the beginning that this fusion reaction is very much more difficult than using DT fusion fuel, as seen from the spherical laser compression of p-11 B needing densities of 100,000 times the solid state (Hora, 2002) and input laser pulses of several 10MJ energy to produce modest energy gains per laser energy of less than 25 (Scheffel et al, 1997).…”

Section: Fusion Energy Without Dangerous Radiationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…6 and Eq. For the volume ignition case, neglecting the Compton process may result in lower fusion gains (Scheffel et al, 1997) only as a lower, pessimistic level of gains. The problem of re-absorption for spherical compression with thermal volume ignition is well including whether the bremsstrahlung is re-absorbed by collisions or additionally by Compton scattering (Meyerhofer et al, 2008).…”

Section: Fusion Energy Without Dangerous Radiationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Review about acceleration of plasma by nonlinear forces from picoseond laser pulses and block generated fusion flame in uncompressed fuel

et al. 2011

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In addition to the matured "laser inertial fusion energy" with spherical compression and thermal ignition of deuteriumtritium (DT), a very new alternative for the fast ignition scheme may have now been opened by using side-on block ignition aiming beyond the DT-fusion with igniting the neutron-free reaction of proton-boron-11 (p-11 B). Measurements with laser pulses of terawatt power and ps duration led to the discovery of an anomaly of interaction, if the prepulses are cut off by a factor 10 8 (contrast ratio) to avoid relativistic self focusing in agreement with preceding computations. Applying this to petawatt (PW) pulses for Bobin-Chu conditions of side-on ignition of solid fusion fuel results after several improvements in energy gains of 10,000. This is in contrast to the impossible laser-ignition of p-11 B by the usual spherical compression and thermal ignition. The side-on ignition is less than ten times only more difficult than for DT ignition. This is essentially based on the instant and direct conversion the optical laser energy by the nonlinear force into extremely high plasma acceleration. Genuine two-fluid hydrodynamic computations for DT are presented showing details how ps laser pulses generate a fusion flame in solid state density with an increase of the density in the thin flame region. Densities four times higher are produced automatically confirming a Rankine-Hugoniot shock wave process with an increasing thickness of the shock up to the nanosecond range and a shock velocity of 1500 km/s which is characteristic for these reactions.

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Section: Fusion Energy Without Dangerous Radiationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Fusion Energy Without Dangerous Radiationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Review about acceleration of plasma by nonlinear forces from picoseond laser pulses and block generated fusion flame in uncompressed fuel

et al. 2011

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“…To avoid the bremsstrahlung losses, the electron temperature T e must be much lower than the ion temperature T i , but not too low because the fusion byproducts should be preferentially stopped by the ions [3,5]. In view of this consideration, the electron temperature must be in narrow range around 100 keV to retain the possibility of self-burning [3,[5][6][7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aneutronic fusion in a degenerate plasma

Son

Fisch

2004

Physics Letters A

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In a Fermi-degenerate plasma, the electronic stopping of a slow ion is smaller than that given by the classical formula, because some transitions between the electron states are forbidden. The bremsstrahlung losses are then smaller, so that the nuclear burning of an aneutronic fuel is more efficient. Consequently, there occurs a parameter regime in which self-burning is possible. Practical obstacles in this regime that must be overcome before net energy can be realized include the compression of the fuel to an ultra dense state and the creation of a hot spot. +

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“…For example the initial needed energy for volume ignition of DT fuel pellet with initial compression to 10 4 times the solid state and initial volume of 10 À2 cm 3 with a gain of more than 4000 is only 1.882 GJ [2], while for a 3 He 3 He fuel pellet with the same initial condition a gain of about 0.52 needs an initial beam energy of more than 5000 GJ. Comparison of our 3 He 3 He results with the H 11 B [7,16] shows that at a higher input energy, ignition temperature and fusion gain are nearly the same for both fuels.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 70%