Summary of Apollo, A D-³He Tokamak Reactor Design

Triton distribution function and 14 MeV neutron generation rate in D-3He field reversed configuration plasmas

“…The use of deuterium-helium-3 (D-3 He) fuel in future fusion reactors is one of the most promising alternatives to deuterium-tritium reactors. In D- 3 He plasmas, the fraction of fusion power carried by 14 MeV neutrons is considerably smaller than that in deuterium-tritium plasmas, and highly efficient fusion is made possible by recovery of the fusion power carried by high energy fusion produced ions. In order to confine the plasma, keeping radiation losses lower and efficiently producing electric power, a field reversed configuration (FRC) may be one of the most suitable candidates.…”

“…The high-β field utilization parameter in FRC systems keeps synchrotron radiation losses well below other losses, and the open field configuration employed makes it more attractive to use direct energy conversion techniques. While there are enormous uncertainties due to the small physical database, the concept of the D-3 He/FRC system has intrinsic potential, and studies to clarify the issues critical for commercial reactors are now in progress [1][2][3][4].…”

“…Several scenarios to bring the initial plasma with low magnetic flux to the ignited state (of how to externally supply the magnetic flux) have been investigated and various techniques have also been proposed, for example, the traditional theta pinch technique [5], neutral beam injection [6] and the rotating magnetic field method [7]. On the other hand, it has been theoretically predicted that once D- 3 He/FRC plasma is ignited, the required magnetic flux could be supplied by the current carried by fusion produced high energy protons [8]. This is because fusion produced protons are asymmetrically lost from FRC plasma; their distribution function is distorted along the azimuthal direction in cylindrical co-ordinates in the axially symmetric FRC geometry.…”

“…In D-T plasma we should consider how efficiently to utilize the 14 MeV neutrons to produce electric power, while in D- 3 He plasma it is desired that neutron generation should be as low as possible, from the viewpoint of reducing wall load and elongating the life of the surrounding materials. The 14 MeV neutron generation rate is one of the key parameters for D-3 He plasmas.…”

A D-3He fusion reactor with an edge radiating layer

“…This idea is in the mainstream of the advanced tokamak concept: in fact, it optimizes and improves the most advanced high-β scenarios considered for the existing leading D-3 He tokamak reactor designs, i.e. ARIES-III [13,14], Apollo [15] and spherical tori [16]. In all these conceptual reactors, very high average wall reflectivities (typically, of greater than 95%) are required, in conjunction with large confinement enhancement factors (e.g., H = 7 for ARIES-III).…”