Defense Intelligence Reference Document Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Fusion

Defense Intelligence Agency · 72 pages · text from the file's own layer

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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“Works”29 pages

p. 7 …Emphasis is placed on work in these areas at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, although…
p. 8 …of how inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) fusion works. Gas ~ccd I in~ Spherical Vacuum . Chamber !!1…
p. 10 …While Hirsh worked with Farnsworth to demonstrate early experimental success with IEC experiments (Reference 1.2…
p. 11 …Such work was soon taken up in several other laboratories, including Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL…
p. 12 …electron) injected traps (as does the present author's work). This selection was largely driven by…
p. 15 …This work and others on the small gridded systems at that time showed several important problems…
p. 17 …Recent work has shown that by properly programming the distribution function of the injected electrons it…
p. 18 …Results indicate that although the formalism works well during the early phases of compression, when the…
p. 21 …Hirsch Working With Philo Farnsworth I' I'· 0 ,,, 10•u w "',. ~ 40~ CRONS D- -,C •~7…
p. 22 …This worked well, but the design was eventually discarded to move to RF guns with much…
p. 23 …This work substituted a metallic hybrid getter for the external pumping on the IEC chamber. With…
p. 24 …Another important example of the use of a compact IEC neutron source is the work at…
p. 25 …2.7) The IEC developed for this work used a magnetron ion generation technique to improve…
p. 26 …Still the design worked reasonably well for the initial mine detection experiments. Unfortunately, the project was…
p. 27 …as shown by the hybrid magnetron source work in Japan. Another point noted is the advantage…
p. 29 …As already noted, the basic physics of this version was originally studied in pioneering work by…
p. 30 …Relation to Other Prior Thrusters NASA and other laboratories have worked toward developing advanced Hall Thrusters…
p. 31 …Indeed, the thruster concept arose from work on a fusion based IEC (Reference 3.5). To…
p. 32 …Khachan's work. It too looks very promising. 25 UNCLASSIFIED/ ,u;oAt OFFIGIPk IP&'i OIIU{
p. 35 …at the UIUC and several other laboratories working on IECs. The issue then is how to…
p. 39 …In follow-on work, they simplified the modeling of charge exchange with an analytical approach to…
p. 40 …Satsangi, "Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Experiments at Low Working Pressure," Prepared under U.S. Army contract DAAK…
p. 42 …In Chacon's work, a bounce-averaged Fokker-Planck (BAFP) model was employed to obtain steady…
p. 45 …Before discussing this work, some definitions for the potential well structure will be reviewed. POTENTIAL WELL…
p. 48 …However, much more work needs to be done along these lines to fully identify the optimal…
p. 52 …As pointed out by Khachan his work noted D2+ becomes more significant in lower voltages). In…
p. 53 …Nevins, Can inertial electrostatic confinement work beyond the ion-ion collisional time scale?" Phys. Plasmas, Vol…
p. 70 …Chacon's work, thermalized ions build up and additional quasi- Maxwellian distriution in the trap). Still…
p. 71 …To accomplish this result quickly on a modest budget, we need to simplify the work by…

REFERENCES
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4.1 W.M. Nevins, Can inertial electrostatic confinement work beyond the ion-ion
collisional time scale?" Phys. Plasmas, Vol. 2, No. IO, October (1995) pp. 3804-3819.
4.2 L. Chacon, G. H. Miley, D. C. Barnes, and D. A. Knoll, "Energy gain calculations
in Penning fusion systems using a bounce-averaged Fokker-Planck modelz" Phys. of
Plasmas, vol. 7, no. 11, (2000) p. 4547.
4.3 T .N. Tiouririne and D. C. Barnes, Optimization of SCIF Fusion Systems", Bull.
Am. Phys. Soc., vol. 40 (1995) pp. 1665.
4.4 I.V. Tzonev, J. M. DeMora, G.H. Miley, "Effect of Large Ion Angular Momentum
Spread and High Current on Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Potential Structures",
Proc. 16th IEEENPSS Symp. Dn Fusion Engr. (Miley and Elliott, eds.) IEEE paper
95CH35852, 1476-1481 (1996).
4.5 G.H. Miley and H. Momota, "Virtual Cathode in a Stationary Spherical Inertial
Electrostatic Confinement", Fusion Science and Technology, Vol. 40, July (2001).
4.6 H.J. Kim, "Instability Studies on a Spherical Inertial Electrostatic Confinement",
Dissertation, Submitted in partial fulfillment for the requirements of degree of Doctor of
Philosophy, NPRE Department, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois
(2006).
4.7 T.H. Rider, "A general critique of inertial-electrostatic confinement fusion
systems", Phys. Plasmas, Vol. 2, No. 6, June (1995) p. 1853.
4.8 G.H. Miley, John M. DeMora, Brian E. Jurczyk, Martin Nieto, "Computational
Studies of Collisional Processes in Inertial Electrostatic Glow Discharge Fusion Devices,"
18th Symposium on Fusion Engineering, (1999) p 23.
Section V. Potential Applications
The ultimate application for IECs is for electrical power production. This is discussed
further in Section VI. Section V concentrates on various near-term "spin off"
applications of neutron/proton/x-ray sources and also non-electrical power applications
such as space propulsion.
NEUTRON/PROTON/XRAY SOURCES
As seen from the discussion to this point, the main application of the IEC to date has
been as a small portable neutron source for NAA. In addition, since both D-D and D- 3He
reactions can be used for proton production, IECs have also been pursed for medial
isotope and PET scan isotope production. However, due to the need for high source
strengths to fully compete in this arena, that use is still undergoing research. Another
novel application noted earlier is the use of the IEC to simulate implantation of D+ and
He+ in candidate fusion reactor first wall materials. Yet another novel use involves
running the IEC with reverse polarity such that the trapped electrons produce soft x-
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