Plasma-channel-based reactor and final transport

Yu, S.S.; Eylon, S.; Fessenden, T.J.; Henestroza, E.; Lafever, R.; Leemans, Wim; Petzoldt, R.W.; Ponce, D.; Vella, M.C.; Moir, R.W.; Sharp, W.M.; Peterson, R. R.; Sawan, M.E.; Tauschwitz, A.

doi:10.1016/s0168-9002(98)00535-x

Cited by 31 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…TSUNAMI 2.8 predicts an impulse load of 3 kPa s. co-workers in 1998 [76]. Recently, the author proposed to modify Yu's design and introduced the same improvements to the HYLIFE-II design that were made to finalize the RPD [28].…”

Section: Liquid Geometrymentioning

confidence: 99%

Gas Transport and Control in Thick-Liquid Inertial Fusion PowerPlants

Debonnel

2006

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Among the numerous potential routes to a commercial fusion power plant, the inertial path with thick-liquid protection is explored in this doctoral dissertation. Gas dynamics phenomena in such fusion target chambers have been investigated since the early 1990s with the help of a series of simulation codes known as TSUNAMI. For this doctoral work, the code was redesigned and rewritten entirely to enable the use of modern programming techniques, languages and software; improve its user-friendliness; and refine its ability to model thick-liquid protected chambers. The new ablation and gas dynamics code is named "Visual Tsunami" to emphasize its graphics-based pre-and post-processors. It is aimed at providing a versatile and user-friendly design tool for complex systems for which transient gas dynamics phenomena play a key role. Simultaneously, some of these improvements were implemented in a previous version of the code; the resulting code constitutes the version 2.8 of the TSUNAMI series.Visual Tsunami was used to design and model the novel Condensation Debris Experiment (CDE), which presents many aspects of a typical Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) system and has therefore been used to exercise the code. Numerical and experimental results are in good 2 agreement.In a heavy-ion IFE target chamber, proper beam and target propagation set stringent requirements for the control of ablation debris transport in the target chamber and beam tubes.When the neutralized ballistic transport mode is employed, the background gas density should be adequately low and the beam tube metallic surfaces upstream of the neutralizing region should be free of contaminants. TSUNAMI 2.8 was used for the first simulation of gas transport through the complex geometry of the liquid blanket of a hybrid target chamber and beam lines. Concurrently, the feasibility of controlling the gas density was addressed with a novel beam tube design, which introduces magnetic shutters and a long low-temperature liquid vortex; this beam tube configuration was included in the first thick-liquid heavy-ion fusion point design, the so-called Robust Point Design 2002. Additionally, novel, alternative thick-liquid chambers that can accommodate the assisted-pinch, the solenoidal final-focusing, or a Z-pinch driver are discussed.Prof.

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Section: Liquid Geometrymentioning

confidence: 99%

Gas Transport and Control in Thick-Liquid Inertial Fusion PowerPlants

Debonnel

2006

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“…͑iii͒ Finally, there are other proposed forms of nonballistic focusing generally referred to as channel transport. 5,6 This category includes methods that employ an electrical discharge or self-pinch in a gas to maintain the beam at small radius in a ''channel'' through the chamber to the target. While these classes of designs are listed in order of increasing complexity with respect to the plasma physics, they are in decreasing order of difficulty in the phase space and ion kinetic energy constraints placed on the ion beam delivered by the accelerator.…”

Section: Background and Motivationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Results from a scaled final focus experiment for heavy ion fusion

et al. 2002

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Negative chlorine ions from multicusp radio frequency ion source for heavy ion fusion applications Rev.A one-tenth-scale version of a final focus subsystem for a heavy-ion-fusion driver has been built and used for experimental tests of concept. By properly scaling the parameters that relate ion energy and mass, current, emittance, and focusing fields, the transverse dynamics of a representative driver final focus have been replicated in a small laboratory beam. Whereas the driver beam parameters considered are 10 GeV Bi ϩ at 1.25 kA, the scaled experiment used a 95 A beam of 160 keV Cs ϩ ions brought to a ballistic focus through a series of six quadrupole magnets. The measured focal spot size was consistent with calculations in the report of the design on which the experiment is based. In a second experimental program, a 400 A beam was propagated through the focal system and partially neutralized after the last magnet using electrons released from a hot tungsten filament to test the predictions of the benefits of neutralization. The increase in beam current resulted in a corresponding increase in spot radius in the absence of electrons. A reduction of the spot radius and modification of its shape were observed in the presence of neutralizing electrons.

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“…In my experiment the ionization is through the multiphoton absorption process in benzene, but if a decision is made to utilize a high peak power ultrafast laser to utilize the tunneling ionization process, careful consideration needs to be made of the associated effects [70]. One has to do a calculation of the power requirements under both multiphoton and tunneling ionization in what would be the prevalent atmosphere in the target chamber, which some have suggested to be xenon gas and the partial vapor pressure of FLiBe [82].…”

Section: Gas Laser Ionization Processmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plasma channel and Z-pinch dynamics for heavy ion transport

Ponce-Marquez¹

2002

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A self stabilized, free standing, z-pinch plasma channel has been proposed to deliver the high intensity heavy ion beam from the end of a driver to the fuel target in a heavy ion inertial fusion power plant. The z-pinch relaxes emittance and energy spread requirements requiring a lower cost driver. A z-pinch transport would reduce the number of beam entry port holes to the target chamber from over a hundred to four as compared to neutralized ballistic focusing thus reducing the driver hardware exposure to neutron flux. Experiments where a double pulse discharge technique is used, z-pinch plasma channels with enhanced stability are achieved. Typical parameters are 7 kV pre-pulse discharge and 30 kV main bank discharge with 50 kA of channel current in a 7 torr background gas atmosphere. This work is an experimental study of these plasma channels examining the relevant physics necessary to understand and model such plasmas. Laser diagnostics measured the dynamical properties 2 of neutrals and plasma. Schlieren and phase contrast techniques probe the pre-pulse gas dynamics and infrared interferometry and faraday effect polarimetry are used on the zpinch to study its electron density and current distribution. Stability and repeatability of the z-pinch depend on the initial conditions set by the pre-pulse. Results show that the z-pinch channel is wall stabilized by an on-axis gas density depression created by the pre-pulse through hydrodynamic expansion where the ratio of the initial gas density to the final gas density is > 10/1. The low on-axis density favors avalanching along the desired path for the main bank discharge. Pinch time is around 2 µs from the main bank discharge initiation with a FWHM of ≈ 2 cm. Results also show that typical main bank discharge plasma densities reach 10 17 cm −3 peak on axis for a 30 kV, 7 torr gas nitrogen discharge.Current rise time is limited by the circuit-channel inductance with the highest contribution to the impedance due to the plasma. There is no direct evidence of surface currents due to high frequency skin effects and magnetic field experiments indicate that > 70% of the current carried by the channel is enclosed within FWHM of the channel. Code-experiment benchmark comparisons show that simulations capture the main mechanisms of the channel evolution, but complete atomic models need to be incorporated.

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Plasma-channel-based reactor and final transport

Cited by 31 publications

References 10 publications

Gas Transport and Control in Thick-Liquid Inertial Fusion PowerPlants

Gas Transport and Control in Thick-Liquid Inertial Fusion PowerPlants

Results from a scaled final focus experiment for heavy ion fusion

Plasma channel and Z-pinch dynamics for heavy ion transport

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