1. A New Approach to Fusion Energy
D. C. Barnes
FPA Pathways to the Future
September 28, 2006
9/19/2006
Coronado Consulting

2. 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 Consulting

3. 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 x , and yield is 1/2  P' is  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 Consulting

4. How to lower the fusion threshold?
Beam-target fusion
100 keV D beam into T plasma
More heat than fusion
200
300
400
500
600 T Q
phys
0.1
0.2
16 bar
9/19/2006
Coronado Consulting

5. New idea #1: Heat engine power flow
Beam-target
fusion gives
this Qphys ~ 10-20%
Plant engineers see this Qeng ~ 10
9/19/2006
Coronado Consulting

6. Plasma Centrifuge Heat Engine for Colliding Beam Fusion Reactor*
Plasma Centrifuge Heat Engine for Continuous Beam Fusion Reactor†
Plasma Centrifuge Heat Engine Beam Fusion Reactor**
*Patent Pending, App. No. 60/596567, USPTO (2005).
† Patent Pending, App. No. 60/766791, USPTO (2006).
* *Patent Pending, App. No , USPTO (2006).

7. 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!
9/19/2006
Coronado Consulting

8. 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 Consulting

9. 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 Consulting

10. P-CHES D-T reactor 1T 1m
High-b and beam-target operation implies low B operation [33 W/cm3  400 MW]
9/19/2006
Coronado Consulting

11. P-CHES D-T reactor (cartoon approximation)
Toroidal current driven by rotating magnetic field (RMF) with stationary dipole
Beam formed by electrostatic acceleration of injected, low-energy particles
e.g. Ftrapped = 0.45 W  Vtrapped = +200 kV
9/19/2006
Coronado Consulting

12. 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 Consulting

13. Forming rotating FRC Coronado Consulting
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 Consulting

14. Forming rotating FRC Coronado Consulting
Firing end anodes produces rotating plasma
Rotating plasma “sees” RMF, producing FRC
9/19/2006
Coronado Consulting

15. Summary and future Coronado Consulting 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
9/19/2006
Coronado Consulting