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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.
“Works”29 pages
UNCLASSIFIED//509 QSSJ~Jlk !JCS &•lk¥ " / i \;: /' Cathode gncl / ~/ I ! Figure 3.1. Two Types of Cylindrical IECs. The hollow cathode on the left (often termed the C-Device) and the 2-D gridded version on the right, often Just called "the" cylindrical IEC. The hollow cathode "C-Device" of Figure 3.1 has an insulated vacuum chamber with an alternating series of hollow cylindrical cathodes and anodes spaced along a common longitudinal axis. Biased end plates serve as charged particles "reflectors". The anodes, cathodes and end plates are biased to steady state and/or pulsed voltages, depending on the operational mode. This configuration is used to initiate a plasma discharge, resulting in electrostatic confinement of fusion fuel ions in both the axial and radial directions (Reference 3.4). Present operation produces about 107 n/s (D-D) steady state while for pulsed output 10 9 n/s (D-D) is obtained. In "the" cylindrical version 2-D IEC (Figure 3.1), a cylindrical cathode grid is placed with its axis concentric with the axis of the surrounding vacuum vessel. This is then, in effect, a 2-D version of the spherical IEC. It operates by convergence of ions created between the grid and wall onto a small volume along the axis, hence has sometimes been called the "Radial Converging IEC (RC-IEC)". As already noted, the basic physics of this version was originally studied in pioneering work by T. Dolan in 1970. However, the concept lay dormant until revised and upgraded several decades later with improved grid designs for neutron production by UIUC workers. ELECTRICALLY-DRIVEN IEC JET THRUSTER The use of an IEC design for space propulsion was originally proposed by R.W. Bussard (Reference 3.6). (His concept was for a high thrust scram jet device. While very attractive, this concept (and Miley et al.'s "Spaceship I & II concepts discussed later) are for far-term use. Here we discuss near-term electronically driven IEC designed for space applications. In this case, electrical power would come from a solar panel. The IEC jet thruster is intended as an ultra-maneuverable space thruster for satellite and small probe thrust operations. The IEC Jet design potential offers a unique capability to cover a wide range of powers (few Watts to Kilowatts) with good efficiency while providing a plasma jet that can start with a large diameter but be narrowed directionally to focus on targets. The IEC thruster uses a spherical configuration, wherein ions are generated and accelerated towards the center of a spherical vacuum chamber. A virtual cathode forms in the high-density central core region, and combined with a locally distorted cathode grid potential field, extracts accelerated ions into an 22 UNCLASSIFIED//FQII. QFFlliil,t k llili &•lk¥
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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.