Creation of a high-temperature plasma through merging and compression of supersonic field reversed configuration plasmoids

Abstract

A new device, the Inductive Plasma Accelerator, was employed to simultaneously form and accelerate two oppositely directed field reversed configurations (FRCs) where the relative velocity (600 km s−1) of the plasmoids was much larger than their internal thermal motion. Upon collision all of the FRC directional energy was observed to be rapidly thermalized concurrent with complete magnetic reconnection of the two FRCs. Upon merging, the resulting FRC was compressed to kilovolt ion temperatures exhibiting a configuration lifetime better than predicted by past scaling of in situ formed FRCs. With the improved FRC confinement scaling, a pulsed plasma device based on this approach capable of achieving fusion gain is examined. For an FRC with a poloidal flux 20 mWb or greater, the fusion energy yield per pulse exceeds the plasma energy for compression fields of 10 T or more. The scaling is insensitive to the compression chamber radial scale, providing for the possibility of a very compact fusion neutron source.

Plasma physics: The fusion upstarts

“…Helion has demonstrated the concept 4 in a D-D reactor with plasmoids that fire once every three minutes, and it is now seeking $15 million in private financing over the next five years to develop a fullscale machine that could use D-T fuel to reach the break-even point, when it generates as much energy as it takes to run. The company hopes that its reactor could eventually reach the hotter conditions needed to fuse deuterium with helium-3, another combination that produces only α-particles and protons, with no neutron by-products.…”

Materials Analysis of Transient Plasma-Wall Interactions

“…FRC's are well studied [12], and commonly yield plasma densities on the order of ~10 21 m -3 and can be translated with plasmoid velocities ~10 5 m/s [13]. Not only is the plasma source critical to the success of these studies, but the most accurate characterization of plasma conditions at the surface of the material sample is at the center of our focus.…”

Photodetachment cross-section evaluation using asymptotic considerations

“…In 2008, the ITER ''proof of concept'' (and afterwards, the DEMO technological project) [3,4] was started (300 m tall, 23,000 tons weight, 10 5 km of niobium-tin wire for magnets, 840 m 3 expected plasma volume, $ 20 billions cost). Nevertheless, the existence of instabilities in the plasma due to the spiral orbits of particles around the line of electric current (particles in the plasma moving in tight spiral orbits) induced loss of heat, and alternative technological solutions emerged [5][6][7][8][9]11].…”

“…Another (fourth) prototype of fusion reactor is the magnetized target fusion (General Fusion project [2]), in which a spinning vortex of liquid metal is created, and in which plasma is injected into the empty center (squeezing) [5][6][7][8][9].…”