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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“The Times”31 pages

p. 8 …This is important for long run times since 10n bombardment of the grids, hence grid wire…
p. 9 …This time can be restated in terms of the number of ion recirculations in the IEC…
p. 15 …This work and others on the small gridded systems at that time showed several important problems…
p. 17 …interesting concept is the idea of ion focusing, either in space or time, or some other…
p. 18 …confinement time for aneutronic fusion. This assumes, however, very precise control is maintained over the energy…
p. 23 …By selecting the pulse width to match or exceed the ion confinement time, typically order of…
p. 27 …This is the approach used at the UIUC. However, introduction of the source into the configuration…
p. 30 …The second jet would serve the integration purpose of the platform without having to expend time…
p. 35 …The issue then is how to achieve adequate confinement times. The approach being pursued at UIUC…
p. 36 …step in a timely fashion, however. The Dipole Assisted IEC (DaIEC) The dipole assisted IEC DaIEC…
p. 38 …in the current experiment. It is found that electron density increases about 17 times more than…
p. 41 …Namely, the time scale for collisional degradation of the beam-like ion distribution function is crucial…
p. 42 …would homogenize the speed within the ion beam a~er some time, making the speed difference…
p. 43 …1) The electrostatic well is deep enough (Eo > 100 kV); 2) Ion confinement time is long…
p. 44 …The source to sink issue noted several times here can be explained as follows. Two opposite…
p. 49 …The time convergence test suggests that employing the largest time step compatible with accuracy in a…
p. 50 …When an ion beam is hot, the waves excited by the instability are ion acoustic type…
p. 51 …used an analytical model of charge- exchange collisions in the IEC plasma to include ion time…
p. 53 …Nevins, Can inertial electrostatic confinement work beyond the ion-ion collisional time scale?" Phys. Plasmas, Vol…
p. 54 …This method uses a pulsed high-energy neutron source and the time-of-flight (TOF) diagnostics…
p. 57 …The longer the charge time, the higher the charge in the energy storage capacitor bank and…
p. 58 …The challenge in these systems is that the unloading time is short and the container is…
p. 59 …by the number of detectors, the detector configuration, the collimated beam size, the acquisition time, and…
p. 62 …The Tokamak has a shorter trip time by employing a power level that is six times…
p. 63 …In this fashion, an array of multiple IECs increase the overall confinement time roughly in proportion…
p. 64 …This recirculation significantly increases the confinement time verses that of a simple cusp devise, leading to…
p. 65 …This re-trapping greatly increases the confinement time of a MCSA fusion device. 58 UNCLASSIFIED/;CEiOAt…
p. 66 …in the IEC high power-to-weight of the MCSA enables fast trip times. The concept…
p. 67 …across the outer surface, so increased confinement times have been achieved by going to the massively…
p. 68 …Here n is the ion density and Tis the ion confinement time. Assuming the converged core…
p. 69 …A specially designed radio frequency (RF) ion gun is installed on the side of the chamber…

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bank discharges. The pulse shaper is a tapped inductive line with each tap terminated
by a pulse-forming network (PFN). Each tap performs a filtering function for a discrete
Fourier function or band of frequencies, which results in a smoother, and more uniform
pulse rise and fall, and also provides more constant load impedance matching, as the
IEC tube has high input impedance. This aids in the forward coupling of energy into the
IEC by minimizing backward or reflected standing waves generated by the dynamic
impedance discontinuity presented by the spark gap and the cathode to anode circuit
path. The PFN, in effect, serves as a pulsed coupled transformer with a low input
impedance and a high output impedance to drive the IEC tube. Components for the PFN
are off-the-shelf and commercially available. The spark gap trigger is activated by an
IGBT (isolated fate bipolar transistor) driven by the power control circuits.
A stable multivibrator timer circuit is reset each time the spark gap is fired by a fast
phototransistor circuit that detects spark-generated photons. This is coupled by a light
wave-guide or optical fiber to provide high voltage isolation between the solid-state
control circuits and the high voltage sections. This optically isolated signal is input to
signal processing to give time of flight measurements. A digital or manual
potentiometer range selector controls the time delay by increasing or decreasing the
resistance in an RC network. When the capacitor in this network charges to a nominal
voltage threshold, the timer circuit changes its logic state and drives the gate of the
spark gap trigger IGBT on, and this initiates the spark gap arc. This RC time period
ramp is an analog of the energy storage capacitor charging ramp, which also begins
after the main arc occurs and drains the energy store. The longer the charge time, the
higher the charge in the energy storage capacitor bank and the higher the voltage is
when the next pulse is initiated. The voltage applied to the IEC tube is thus varied over
a nominal 40 percent range. The peak output voltage can therefore be varied over a
range of SO kV to 120kV. There is a reciprocal relationship between the pulse repetition
frequency and the output pulse peak power.
Design of the Total Integrated Interrogation System
The integrated system is illustrated conceptually in Figure 5.2.
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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.