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…

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move to high power IEC operations which are non-electrical. Deep space propulsion is
used as an example.
SPACE PROPULSION
The IEC can be used for both near-term electrically driven thrusters for satellite
operations (using the jet mode discussed earlier) and for fusion-powered deep space
propulsion. The latter is illustrated in Reference 5.3 where a D- 3He reactor was utilized.
This design concept is briefly summarized here.
Figure S.S. Image of a Fusion II Spaceship, a 750-MWe IEC Fusion-Powered Manned Spacecraft With
Ion Thruster Propulsion
The IEC Spaceship "Fusion Ship II" is shown in Figures 5.5 and 5.6. (Note: Fusion Ship
II represents an upgrade to high power of an earlier design termed "Fusion Ship I").
The overall spaceship length is 300 meters and the initial mass at mission start is 500
metric tons. Crew and avionics/computers are located in the central compartment at
the forward end of the vehicle. The crew compartment uses 12-m diameter chamber
and could contain a rotating centrifuge for sleep and exercise. A steerable antenna
located on the side of this module provides communication. Twin 175-meter long
assemblies, comprised of 5 D- 3He spherical IEC reactors and Traveling Wave Direct
Energy Convertors (TWDECs) each, generate 1394 MW of 14. 7- MeV proton flux and
469-MW of thermal heat which is converted to 1197 MWe of RF electric power. 242 MW
of the electrical power, then, re-circulates to run the reactors while 750 MWe is used to
drive ion thrusters while the remainder of the energy is rejected as waste heat. A fusion
fuel re-circulation and separation system is operated continuously to remove the fusion
product 4 He from the D- 3 He reactants. Any unburned fuel is collected via the TWDEC
energy convertors and recirculated back to the IEC reactors. This conserves the
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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.