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This Defense Intelligence Agency reference document, dated 1 November 2010, is one of a series of advanced technology reports produced in FY 2010 under the Advanced Aerospace Weapons System Applications (AAWSA) Program. It covers fusion plasma physics, confinement methods, and propulsion concepts that use aneutronic fuels such as hydrogen and boron-11. It concludes that such thrusters may soon replace satellite ion thrusters. It also finds that they will not be practical beyond the solar system without breakthrough propulsion physics.
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UNCLASSIFIED/ ,'1"1!11'- l!ll"l"ll!lllile lal!i! 8Hlo'f In order to facilitate efficient fusion, it is also necessary to constrain the motions of the charged particles (i.e., confine the plasma) in an attempt to maximize the likelihood of ion collisions. Therefore, the net energy produced by the fusion process is more realistically the released energy minus the energy consumed for plasma heating and confinement. The fusion energy gain factor, usually expressed with the symbol Q, is the ratio of fusion power produced in a nuclear fusion reactor to the power required to maintain the plasma temperature; for the Lawson Criterion, breakeven Q = 1. However, to provide sufficient energy to convert that power to a useful level, a minimum Q >5 is needed, and for a power plant to generate electricity the Q should be >30. For the fusion reactions shown in Table 3, the (D, 3He) will produce a few fusion neutrons which can be minimized by running hot and deuterium-lean; however, the application may be limited by the availability of 3He. Other reactions to consider will be the (p, 6U) and (p, 11B). First, a review the most commonly used plasma confinement methods is needed. Table 3: Fusion Ignition Temperatures ru.1 I [~•YI /
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Report, from the dia collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 36 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.