Conceptual design of the Fast-Liner Reactor (FLR) for fusion power

Abstract

The generation of fusion power from the Fast-Liner Reactor (FLR) concept envisages the implosion of a thin (3mm) metallic cylinder (0.2-m radius by 0.2-m length) onto a preinjected plasma. This plasma would be heated to thermonuclear temperatures by adiabatic compression, pressure confinement would be provided by the liner inertia, and thermal insulation of the wall-confined plasma would be established by an embedded azimuthal magnetic field. A 2-to 3-ys burn would follow the ^10 4 m/s radial implosion and would result in a thermonuclear yield equal to 10-15 times the energy initially invested into the liner kinetic energy. For implosions occurring once every 10 s a gross thermal power of 430 MWt would be generated. The results of a comprehensive systems study of both physics and technology (economics) optima are presented. Despite unresolved problems associated with both the physics and technology of the FLR, a conceptual power plant design is presented. Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory has proposed and is conducting experiments on ^10 m/s imploding liners; this approach is similar to that followed ten years ago by Alikhanov et al. Consideration of liner buckling and Rayleigh-Taylor stability, particle and energy confinement, and the desire for very compact systems exhibiting high power densities nave led to the choice of the fast mode. Fast implosions that are driven by an azimuthal field should alleviate the Rayleigh-Taylor instability and supress the plastic-elastic (buckling) instability in addition to allowing wallconfinement of the plasma pressure. The technological problems associated with GJ-level energy transfers and releases over microsecond time intervals g are severe, and to a great extent the magnitude of these problems is related directly to the non-ideal behavior of a fast-liner/plasma system (i.e., liner compressibility, liner stability, field diffusion, plasma turbulence, thermal conduction, and radiation) as reflected by constraints imposed by a realistic engineering energy balance. The Fast-Liner Reactor (FLR) concept combines the favorable aspects of inertia! confinement and heating with the more efficient energy transfer associated with magnetic approaches to yield a conceptual fusion system based on the pulsed burn of a \iery dense D-T plasma. A thin metal cylinder or "liner" of ^0.2-m initial radius, ^3-rnm initial thickness, and ^0.2-m length is imploded radially to a velocity of ^ 10 m/s by self-magnetic fields resulting from large currents driven axially through the liner. The liner implodes onto a ^0.5-keV, ^10-m~° D-T plasma that is initially formed in or injected into the liner. As the liner implodes in ^20-40 us, adiabatic compression raises the plasma to thermonuclear temperatures, and a vigorous fusion burn ensues for ^2-3 JJS. During the implosion the plasma pressure is confined inertially by the metal liner and endplug walls. An imbedded azimuthal magnetic field, generated by an axial current driven through the plasma, provides magnetic insulation against radial and axial therma...

Imploding Liner Compression of Plasma: Concepts and Issues

“…In the near term, if we focus on liner compression of plasma to fusion conditions, without regard to substantial nuclear gain, we may succeed on a scientific problem that has challenged the megagauss community for over half a century. Extrapolation of such solid-density liners to reactor levels, however, requires both development of a program that can handle the intermediate, but very high energies of the subsequent explosion of material, and that can economically replace the solid liner in a high current circuit for repetitive operation [30]. The former problem may yield to an appropriate laboratory arrangement for handling blast and fragmentation, a difficult, but not fundamentally impossible notion.…”

Magneto-Inertial Fusion

“…This inspired the Linus project at the Naval Research Laboratory [25], and later the fast-liner project at Los Alamos [26]. In Russia, MIF took a form called magnitnoye obzhatiye, or magnetic compression (MAGO), first revealed by Russian scientists when the Cold War ended [27][28][29], and worked on collaboratively with experiments at LANL [30].…”

Ol'ga Arsen'evna Oleinik (on her sixtieth birthday)

“…The one-dimensional magnetohydrostatic (MHS) 1 code, developed to model the Fast-Liner Reactor [23], was modified for application to the DZPR study.…”

“…Plasma parameters are computed as functions of time by a two-step method [23]. First, the Lagrangian mesh is fixed in space, and all diffusion and loss processes are evaluated for a given time step.…”