Defense Intelligence Reference Document Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Fusion

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Hirsch approach, using electrostatic grids to form a trap with ions that then brought
electrons in. He realized that this approach could result in a very attractive low level
neutron source for neutron activation applications, and began that development. Such
work was soon taken up in several other laboratories, including Los Alamos National
Laboratory (LANL), University of Wisconsin and Kyoto University. Meanwhile Bussard's
work continued with strong funding from the military. However, little was published or
known about this until 2008 when he made public appeals on "YouTube" to regain
funding stopped just when the experiment achieved a major success. Subsequently,
funding resumed but R. W. Bussard passed away shortly thereafter due to a long battle
with cancer. His company and work were then taken over by R. Nebel who took leave
from LANL to undertake this new work. That effort is now in progress and represents
the largest IEC power oriented project in the US or elsewhere (but still modest with a
half dozen senior scientists involved). Meanwhile, laboratories elsewhere working on
IEC neutron sources have continued while the U of Wisconsin has added an IEC proton
source as an option using similar technology. The labs, including the UIUC, have fusion
power as an ultimate goal, but must focus on their funded near-term "spin-off"
projects.
At this point the IEC still receives no funding from DDE which remains focused on the
Tokamak route to fusion power. Thus, with little funding, slow progress has been made
in answering the key question of whether or not the IEC can be developed for fusion
power. If it can, the device would be simpler and smaller than a Tokamak, making it an
extremely attractive option. In addition, its beam-like reactions (highly non-Maxwellian)
make the IEC very well suited for burning alternate ("advanced") fuels like D- 3He and
p- 11 B which are much more environmentally favorable than conventional DT fusion.
Unfortunately Tokomaks are not well equipped to go forward to such fuels.
On the other hand, the use of non-power-producing IECs for other applications, such as
small neutron, proton, and x-ray sources, has been amply demonstrated. Now, the
issue is how well and in what applications the IEC sources compete commercially with
other options such as accelerator target sources.
This report is intended to provide the reader with important insight into the physics and
technology of IECs relative to both power and neutron/proton/x-ray sources. With this
background, hopefully the reader can formulate an opinion about the potential for IEC
applications. Due to the limited funding for IEC research to date, much more has to be
done to actually demonstrate its application, especially for power production. Thus that
opinion must remain a personal one for the reader.
One other limitation of this report is that it largely provides details based on the
author's work on IECs over the last decade. Thus it will not do justice to the ongoing
work by others, notably at EMC2 on the Bussard Polywell device or the advanced
gridded IEC neuron/proton source development work at the U of Wisconsin, Kyoto
University, and Tokyo Institute of Technology. Some insight into these efforts is given
in comments and in references supplied, but the reader is encouraged to discuss that
work with those individuals directly.
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