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This Defense Intelligence Agency reference document, dated 10 March 2010, covers inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) fusion. It was produced in FY 2009 under the DIA's Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications (AAWSA) program. The report focuses on work at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and reviews IEC basics, experiments, theory and applications such as neutron sources, explosives detection and space propulsion. It concludes by proposing a breakeven experiment for p-11B fusion that uses a hydrogen plasma simulation.
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UNCLASSIFIED/;SflHl 8FFHil.t.L l!j!ilE 8HLV The basic principle of this detection method, shown in Figure 2.5, is common to most NAA but is now specialized for detecting the basic elements in the land mines. Key design considerations are the source strength required, the neutron energy desired (i.e. D-D vs D-T fusion) and the type and location of neutron and x-ray detectors (from Reference 2.7). How to Detect Landmine Neutron yield of ·- 102 1s required y.ray detector = neutron ll>"l trc,11 ,:apturt?d r y -,.-ray thermol neutron l,llldtnillf' 1:,:. X 1·• I(,.:. i·~·i:,) ':>IUll H(n, n') • • • H SCclttr:•r IH·lltr,:,11 Figure 2.5. Scheme for Landmine Detection Using a Hybrid Magnetron Type IEC Neutron Source (From Reference 2.7) The IEC developed for this work used a magnetron ion generation technique to improve the neutron production efficiency (Reference 2.6). A built-in magnetron discharge ion source was installed in the IEC. With the magnetron discharge, ions are produced in the vicinity of the vacuum chamber (anode) at negative electric potential. Therefore, the ions produced are expected to have nearly full energy corresponding to the applied voltage to the IEC cathode but slightly smaller energy than the anode potential. This prevents them from hitting the anode of the opposite side improving both fusion reaction rate and ion recirculation life. (Note that this approach is yet another way to address the problem of preventing ions created externally from escaping after entering the potential well. The technique here is to use the internal source to create the ions at a potential level less than the height of the potential well). In addition to an internal source, the magnetron can produce ample ion current to maintain the discharge under low-pressure conditions. Ions generated in the ion source are attracted by the IEC central cathode because of its high negative electric potential. Therefore, the Kyoto investigators expected that a higher applied voltage would increase the extraction current, giving a higher IEC cathode current. However, it was 18 UNCLASSIFIED/ ;CEiOAr OFFI&l1ltk WliEii &••LY
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Report, from the dia collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 72 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.