Embedded D-<sup>3</sup>He Fusion Reactions and Medical Isotope Production in an Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Device

Cipiti, B.B.; Kulcinski, G.L.

doi:10.13182/fst03-a392

Cited by 18 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 4 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The highly energetic ions fuse together at the core region and produce particles like neutrons and protons. Unlike magnetic and laser-based confinement methods, which are primarily effective for long term power production, the IECF concept is being developed for the near term applications [1,2]. The theoretical concept of IECF was first proposed by Farnsworth [3], and later it was studied experimentally by Hirsch [4] in the 1970s.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Kinetic characteristics of ions in an inertial electrostatic confinement device

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The kinetic analyses are quite important when it comes to understanding the particle behavior in any device as they start to deviate from a continuum nature. In the present study, kinetic simulations are performed using the particle-in-cell method to analyze the behavior of ions inside a cylindrical inertial electrostatic confinement fusion (IECF) device which is being developed as a tabletop neutron source. Here, the lighter ions, like deuterium, are accelerated by applying an electrostatic field between the chamber wall (anode) and the cathode (cylindrical gridded wire), placed at the center of the device. The plasma potential profiles obtained from the simulated results indicate the formation of multiple potential well structures inside the cathode grid depending upon the applied cathode potential (from −1 to −5 kV). The ion density at the core region of the device is found to be of the order of 10 16 m −3 , which closely resembles the experimental observations. Spatial variation of ion energy distribution function has been measured in order to observe the characteristics of ions at different cathode voltages. Finally, the simulated results are compared and found to be in good agreement with the experimental profiles. The present analysis can serve as a reference guide to optimize the technological parameters of the discharge process in IECF devices.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Kinetic characteristics of ions in an inertial electrostatic confinement device

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…It has to be noted that in figure 1 only a two-dimensional arrangement of the incident laser beams is depicted for simplicity but, of course, on a spherical chamber also a three-dimensional layout can easily be implemented. The energy generation is based on one of the following nuclear fusion reactions: As mentioned earlier, the considerations and calculations are based on equation (2) due to the high fusion yield and the abundance of 7 Li but the basic principles also hold for the other two reactions.…”

Section: Technical Conceptmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another important point is the necessity to operate a fusion power plant in steady state, which has so far only been proven to be possible with the stellarator concept. There are other, more exotic, types of potential fusion reactors, such as the dense plasma focus [2,3] and the Farnsworth-Hirsh fusor [4,5], which was developed in the 1960s and subsequently studied by other authors [6][7][8][9][10]. The latter fusion scheme solves, in principle, the problem of steady state operation [11] but up to now there was no demonstration of reaching the energetic break even point in such a machine, despite the advent of more sophisticated fusors, such as the so-called Polywell [12,13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There are several reasons due to which inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) fusion devices still consume more energy than they deliver. Firstly, the kinetic energies for the largest fusion cross sections peak at rather high values, for example at 100 keV for D-T reactions, at 750 keV for 11 B-proton reactions, at 2 MeV for D-D reactions [14] and at 5 MeV for the aneutronic 7 Li-proton reactions [15]. Such high kinetic energies are not easily achieved by accelerating electric fields alone.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Proposal for a novel type of small scale aneutronic fusion reactor

Gruenwald

2016

Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The aim of this work is to propose a novel scheme for a small scale aneutronic fusion reactor. This new reactor type makes use of the advantages of combining laser driven plasma acceleration and electrostatic confinement fusion. An intense laser beam is used to create a lithium-proton plasma with high density, which is then collimated and focused into the centre of the fusion reaction chamber. The basic concept presented here is based on the 7 Li-proton fusion reaction. However, the physical and technological fundamentals may generally as well be applied to 11 B-proton fusion. The former fusion reaction path offers higher energy yields while the latter has larger fusion cross sections. Within this paper a technological realisation of such a fusion device, which allows a steady state operation with highly energetic, well collimated ion beam, is presented. It will be demonstrated that the energetic break even can be reached with this device by using a combination of already existing technologies.

show abstract

“…The other applications include medical isotope production, inspection, oil well logging, detection of explosives, breeding advanced fuels, and some other usages. There is some uncertainty that it can be used as fusion power generating but it can replace neutron sources in certain diagnostics and analytical applications (Kulcinski 1996;Cipiti and Kulcinski 2003;Weidner 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prediction of potential well structure formed in spherical inertial electrostatic confinement fusion devices with various parameters

Ghasemi¹,

Habibi²,

Amrollahi³

2012

J. Plasma Phys.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this paper, the theoretical analysis regarding potential structure on the inertial electrostatic confinement fusion devices has been carried out. Negatively biased grid as cathode placed at the center of the device surrounded by anode is assumed. The device is an ion-injection system and electrons may be emitted from the surface of the cathode. So the existence of both ion and electron currents inside the cathode is considered. Dependence of radial potential well structure on some important parameters as the spreads in the normalized total and angular electron and ion energies, the ratio of ion circulating current to electron circulating current, ion perveance, and grid transparency are investigated by solving Poisson equation.

show abstract

Embedded D-³He Fusion Reactions and Medical Isotope Production in an Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Device

Cited by 18 publications

References 4 publications

Kinetic characteristics of ions in an inertial electrostatic confinement device

Kinetic characteristics of ions in an inertial electrostatic confinement device

Proposal for a novel type of small scale aneutronic fusion reactor

Prediction of potential well structure formed in spherical inertial electrostatic confinement fusion devices with various parameters

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Embedded D-3He Fusion Reactions and Medical Isotope Production in an Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Device

Cited by 18 publications

References 4 publications

Kinetic characteristics of ions in an inertial electrostatic confinement device

Kinetic characteristics of ions in an inertial electrostatic confinement device

Proposal for a novel type of small scale aneutronic fusion reactor

Prediction of potential well structure formed in spherical inertial electrostatic confinement fusion devices with various parameters

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Embedded D-³He Fusion Reactions and Medical Isotope Production in an Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Device