9/19/2006 coronado consulting a new approach to fusion energy d. c. barnes [email protected] fpa...
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9/19/2006 Coronado ConsultingCoronado Consulting
A New Approach to Fusion Energy
D. C. [email protected]
FPA Pathways to the FutureSeptember 28, 2006
9/19/2006 Coronado ConsultingCoronado Consulting
Outline
• Ultimate fusion – neutronless
• Two new ideas (both for rotating plasmas)– Use high T to make efficient heat engine– Use rotation to make waves from static field
(Doppler effect)
• Summary and plans
9/19/2006 Coronado ConsultingCoronado Consulting
The challenge of aneutronic fusion
• p-11B is 1000 times more difficult than D-T– T is 6 x and 3 electrons/ion n is 0. 05 x , and
yield is 1/2 P' is 0.001 V is 1000 x
• Thermonuclear p-11B tokamak won’t work (physics or economics)
• What alternatives might exist?– Apply to D-T – reduced size and field
9/19/2006 Coronado ConsultingCoronado Consulting
How to lower the fusion threshold?
• Beam-target fusion– 100 keV D beam into T plasma
– More heat than fusion
200 300 400 500 600T
Q phy
s
0.1
0.2
200 300 400 500 600T
Q phy
s
100
1000
200 300 400 500 600T
P‘(
W/c
m3 )
100
1000
200 300 400 500 600T
P‘(
W/c
m3 )
16 bar
9/19/2006 Coronado ConsultingCoronado Consulting
New idea #1: Heat engine power flow
Plasma Rotation
High V
100 keV Deuterons
Homo-polar
Electro-static Acc.
DC Power
Heat Sink
Fusion ’s, n’s
Plant engineers see this Qeng ~ 10
Beam-target
fusion gives
this Qphys ~ 10-20%
beamhe
physeng
1
Plasma Centrifuge Heat Engine for Colliding Beam Fusion Reactor*
*Patent Pending, App. No. 60/596567, USPTO (2005).
† Patent Pending, App. No. 60/766791, USPTO (2006).
* *Patent Pending, App. No. 1153471, USPTO (2006).
Plasma Centrifuge Heat Engine for Continuous Beam Fusion Reactor†
Plasma Centrifuge Heat Engine Beam Fusion Reactor**
9/19/2006 Coronado ConsultingCoronado Consulting
How to make plasma heat engine?
• Several ways– Make “potential field” force
on plasma– Plasma does work against
field, giving mechanical energy to source of field
• Barnes & Nebel – POPS (1998)– Collisionless plasma can
oscillate without entropy generation
• Chacón et al. work (2000)– Thermonuclear plasma in
equilibrium with low T particle replacement
• Continuous or oscillating
• Continuous trap (Pastukov – 1974)
“This result can be understood if one bears in mind that all the energy of an escaping particle consists of transverse motion,…”
If make B 0 at outflow, get low T exhaust!
z
9/19/2006 Coronado ConsultingCoronado Consulting
How to make plasma heat engine?
• Centrifugal well created in rotating plasma– Make B and r small at ends where particles escape
– Open field is that outside a field reversed configuration (FRC)
9/19/2006 Coronado ConsultingCoronado Consulting
Supersonic rotating plasmas exist
Maryland Centrifugal eXperiment (MCX)
From Ellis, et al.
PSP-2 ½ MV Experiment at Novosibirsk
From Abdrashitov, et al.
9/19/2006 Coronado ConsultingCoronado Consulting
P-CHES D-T reactor
• High- and beam-target operation implies low B operation [33 W/cm3 400 MW]
Limiter
Blanket
Solenoid
Axial PositionControl
1m
1T
9/19/2006 Coronado ConsultingCoronado Consulting
P-CHES D-T reactor (cartoon approximation)
• Toroidal current driven by rotating magnetic field (RMF) with stationary dipole
Dipole Coils
• Beam formed by electrostatic acceleration of injected, low-energy particles– e.g. trapped = 0.45 W
Vtrapped = +200 kV
9/19/2006 Coronado ConsultingCoronado Consulting
P-CHES on the path to fusion energy
• Form supersonically rotating FRC
• Study Tloss/Tcentral show small and dependencies to minimize
• Raise applied and induced voltage and inject beam to get fusion conditions
• D-T fusion system
• p-11B fusion system
9/19/2006 Coronado ConsultingCoronado Consulting
Forming rotating FRC
• New idea #2: Make and use waves with plasma rotation e.g. RMF
From Slough and Miller From Hoffman, et al.
9/19/2006 Coronado ConsultingCoronado Consulting
Forming rotating FRC
Firing end anodes produces rotating plasma
Rotating plasma “sees” RMF, producing FRC
9/19/2006 Coronado ConsultingCoronado Consulting
Summary and future
• A new paradigm is proposed– Beam-target fusion with heat
recovered to rotation– High efficiency of beam
formation from rotation
• Many advantages– Very high power density– Required T reduced (500 eV
for D-T)– Required confinement
reduced (< 1 ms for D-T)– Static fields, DC operation
• Extensible to aneutronic systems
• 2 new ideas suggest a modest experiment– Demonstrate formation of
rotating FRC– Heat engine physics diagnosed
if warm FRC produced
• Propose future study– Theory and design– Small experiment