Download or read book Magnetized Target Fusion MTF written by and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 14 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Magnetized target fusion (MTF) is an approach to thermonuclear fusion that is intermediate between the two extremes of inertial and magnetic confinement. Target plasma preparation is followed by compression to fusion conditions. The use of a magnetic field to reduce electron thermal conduction and potentially enhance DT alpha energy deposition allows the compression rate to be drastically reduced relative to that for inertial confinement fusion. This leads to compact systems with target driver power and intensity requirements that are orders of magnitude lower than for ICF. A liner on plasma experiment has been proposed to provide a firm proof of principle for MTF.

Download or read book PROGRESS TOWARD UNDERSTANDING MAGNETIZED TARGET FUSION MTF written by and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Magnetized Target Fusion and Fusion Propulsion written by and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 5 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Magnetized target fusion (MTF) is a thermonuclear fusion concept that is intermediate between the two mainline approaches, magnetic confinement and inertial confinement fusion (MCF and ICF). MTF incorporates some aspects of each and offers advantages over each of the mainline approaches. First, it provides a means of reducing the driver power requirements, thereby admitting a wider range of drivers than ICF. Second, the magnetic field is only used for insulation, not confinement, and the plasma is wall confined, so that plasma instabilities are traded in for hydrodynamic instabilities. However, the degree of compression required to reach fusion conditions is lower than for ICF, so that hydrodynamic instabilities are much less threatening. The standoff driver innovation proposes to dynamically form the target plasma and a gaseous shell that compresses and confines the target plasma. Therefore, fusion target fabrication is traded in for a multiplicity of plasma guns, which must work in synchrony. The standoff driver embodiment of MTF leads to a fusion propulsion system concept that is potentially compact and lightweight. We will discuss the underlying physics of MTF and some of the details of the fusion propulsion concept using the standoff driver approach. We discuss here the optimization of an MTF target design for space propulsion.

Download or read book Magnetized Target Fusion MTF written by and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 5 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Simple transport-based scaling laws are derived to show that a density and time regime intermediate between conventional magnetic confinement and conventional inertial confinement offers attractive reductions in system size and energy when compared to magnetic confinement and attractive reductions in heating power and intensity when compared to inertial confinement. This intermediate parameter space appears to be readily accessible by existing and near term pulsed power technologies. Hence, the technology of the Megagauss conference opens up an attractive path to controlled thermonuclear fusion.

Download or read book Progress with Developing a Target for Magnetized Target Fusion written by and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF) is an approach to fusion where a preheated and magnetized plasma is adiabatically compressed to fusion conditions. Successful MTF requires a suitable initial target plasma with an embedded magnetic field of at least 5 T in a closed-field-line topology, a density of roughly 10[sup 18] cm[sup [minus]3], a temperature of at least 50 eV, and must be free of impurities which would raise radiation losses. Target plasma generation experiments are underway at Los Alamos National Laboratory using the Colt facility; a 0.25 MJ, 2--3 [micro]s rise-time capacitor bank. The goal of these experiments is to demonstrate plasma conditions meeting the minimum requirements for a MTF initial target plasma. In the first experiments, a Z-pinch is produced in a 2 cm radius by 2 cm high conducting wall using a static gas-fill of hydrogen or deuterium gas in the range of 0.5 to 2 torr. Thus far, the diagnostics include an array of 12 B-dot probes, framing camera, gated OMA visible spectrometer, time-resolved monochrometer, filtered silicon photodiodes, neutron yield, and plasma-density interferometer. These diagnostics show that a plasma is produced in the containment region that lasts roughly 10 to 20 [micro]s with a maximum plasma density exceeding 10[sup 18] cm[sup [minus]3]. The experimental design and data are presented.

Download or read book Magnetized Target Fusion Collaboration Final Report written by and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 30 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nuclear fusion has the potential to satisfy the prodigious power that the world will demand in the future, but it has yet to be harnessed as a practical energy source. The entry of fusion as a viable, competitive source of power has been stymied by the challenge of finding an economical way to provide for the confinement and heating of the plasma fuel. It is the contention here that a simpler path to fusion can be achieved by creating fusion conditions in a different regime at small scale (̃a few cm). One such program now under study, referred to as Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF), is directed at obtaining fusion in this high energy density regime by rapidly compressing a compact toroidal plasmoid commonly referred to as a Field Reversed Configuration (FRC). To make fusion practical at this smaller scale, an efficient method for compressing the FRC to fusion gain conditions is required. In one variant of MTF a conducting metal shell is imploded electrically. This radially compresses and heats the FRC plasmoid to fusion conditions. The closed magnetic field in the target plasmoid suppresses the thermal transport to the confining shell, thus lowering the imploding power needed to compress the target. The undertaking described in this report was to provide a suitable target FRC, as well as a simple and robust method for inserting and stopping the FRC within the imploding liner. The FRC must also survive during the time it takes for the metal liner to compress the FRC target. The initial work at the UW was focused on developing adequate preionization and flux trapping that were found to be essential in past experiments for obtaining the density, flux and most critically, FRC lifetime required for MTF. The timescale for testing and development of such a source can be rapidly accelerated by taking advantage of a new facility funded by the Department of Energy. At this facility, two inductive plasma accelerators (IPA) were constructed and tested. Recent experiments with these IPAs have demonstrated the ability to rapidly form, accelerate and merge two hypervelocity FRCs into a compression chamber. The resultant FRC that was formed was hot (T{sub ion} ̃400 eV), stationary, and stable with a configuration lifetime several times that necessary for the MTF liner experiments. The accelerator length was less than 1 meter, and the time from the initiation of formation to the establishment of the final equilibrium was less than 10 microseconds. With some modification, each accelerator can be made capable of producing FRCs suitable for the production of the target plasma for the MTF liner experiment. Based on the initial FRC merging/compression results, the design and methodology for an experimental realization of the target plasma for the MTF liner experiment can now be defined. The construction and testing of the key components for the formation of the target plasma at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) will be performed on the IPA experiment, now at MSNW. A high density FRC plasmoid will be formed and accelerated out of each IPA into a merging/compression chamber similar to the imploding liner at AFRL. The properties of the resultant FRC plasma (size, temperature, density, flux, lifetime) will be obtained. The process will be optimized, and a final design for implementation at AFRL will be carried out. When implemented at AFRL it is anticipated that the colliding/merging FRCs will then be compressed by the liner. In this manner it is hoped that ultimately a plasma with ion temperatures reaching the 10 keV range and fusion gain near unity can be obtained.

Download or read book Computational and Experimental Investigation of Magnetized Target Fusion written by and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 6 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF), a preheated and magnetized target plasma is hydrodynamically compressed to fusion conditions. Because the magnetic field suppresses losses by electron thermal conduction in the fuel during the target implosion heating process, the compression may be over a much longer time scale than in traditional inertial confinement fusion (ICF). Bigger targets and much lower initial target densities than in ICF can be used, reducing radiative energy losses. Therefore, ''liner-on-plasma'' compressions, driven by relatively inexpensive electrical pulsed power, may be practical. Potential MTF target plasmas must meet minimum temperature, density, and magnetic field starting conditions, and must remain relatively free of high-Z radiation-cooling-enhancing contaminants. At Los Alamos National Laboratory, computational and experimental research is being pursued into MTF target plasmas, such as deuterium-fiber-initiated Z-pinches, and the Russian-originated MAGO plasma. In addition, liner-on-plasma compressions of such target plasmas to fusion conditions are being computationally modeled, and experimental investigation of such heavy liner implosions has begun. The status of the research will be presented.

Download or read book Magnetized Target Fusion With Centimeter Size Liner written by D. Ryutov and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 8 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author concentrates on the version of magnetized target fusion (MTF) that involves 3D implosions of a wall-confined plasma with the density in the compressed state {approx} 10{sup 21}-10{sup 22} cm{sup -3}. Possible plasma configurations suitable for this approach are identified. The main physics issues are outlined (equilibrium, stability, transport, plasma-liner interaction, etc). Specific parameters of the experiment reaching the plasma Q{approx}1 are presented (Q is the ratio of the fusion yield to the energy delivered to the plasma). It is emphasized that there exists a synergy between the physics and technology of MTF and dense Z-pinches (DZP). Specific areas include the particle and heat transport in a high-beta plasma, plasma-liner interaction, liner stability, stand-off problem for the power source, reaching a rep-rate regime in the energy-producing reactor, etc. Possible use of existing pulsed-power facilities for addressing these issues is discussed.

Download or read book Generation and Compression of a Target Plasma for Magnetized Target Fusion written by and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 43 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the final report of a three-year, Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Magnetized target fusion (MTF) is intermediate between the two very different approaches to fusion: inertial and magnetic confinement fusion (ICF and MCF). Results from collaboration with a Russian MTF team on their MAGO experiments suggest they have a target plasma suitable for compression to provide an MTF proof of principle. This LDRD project had tow main objectives: first, to provide a computational basis for experimental investigation of an alternative MTF plasma, and second to explore the physics and computational needs for a continuing program. Secondary objectives included analytic and computational support for MTF experiments. The first objective was fulfilled. The second main objective has several facets to be described in the body of this report. Finally, the authors have developed tools for analyzing data collected on the MAGO a nd LDRD experiments, and have tested them on limited MAGO data.

Download or read book Magnetized Target Fusion Field Reversed Configuration Formation and Injection MTF FRC written by and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: DETAR Task 0rder 0016 supports the Air Force Research Laboratory's ongoing effort to demonstrate magnetized target fusion in a laboratory environment. The experimental premise involves forming a plasma in a field-reversed configuration (FRC), translating it a short distance from where it was formed into a cylindrical flux-conserving shell (solid liner), and then adiabatically compressing it to fusion-relevant densities and temperatures by imploding the liner around it. The name "FRCHX," for "FRC Compression Heating eXperiment" has been given to this effort. SAIC and its subcontractors perform this work in collaboration with AFRL personnel, as well as with scientists from Los Alamos National Laboratory, the University of New Mexico, and the University of Nevada, Reno.

Download or read book Proposed Generation and Compression of a Target Plasma for MTF written by and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 7 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Magnetized target fusion (MTF), in which a magnetothermally insulated plasma is hydrodynamically compressed to fusion conditions, represents an approach to controlled fusion which avoids difficulties of both traditional inertial confinement and magnetic confinement approaches. The authors are proposing to demonstrate the feasibility of magnetized target fusion by: (1) creating a suitable magnetized target plasma, (2) performing preliminary liner compression experiments using existing pulsed power facilities and demonstrated liner performance. Once the target plasma and the means for its generation have been optimized, the authors plan to conduct preliminary liner compression experiments aimed at demonstrating the near-adiabatic compression of the target plasma desired for MTF. Relevant liner compression experiments have been performed at Los Alamos in the Scyllac Fast Liner Program and, more recently, in the Pegasus facility and the Procyon explosive pulsed power program. In a series of liner experiments they plan to map out the dependence of temperature and neutron production as functions of the initial plasma conditions and the liner compression achieved. With the above research program, they intend to demonstrate most of the key principles involved in magnetized target fusion, and develop the experimental and theoretical tools needed to design and execute fully integrated MTF ignition experiments.

Download or read book Final Report on the Magnetized Target Fusion Collaboration written by and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nuclear fusion has the potential to satisfy the prodigious power that the world will demand in the future, but it has yet to be harnessed as a practical energy source. The entry of fusion as a viable, competitive source of power has been stymied by the challenge of finding an economical way to provide for the confinement and heating of the plasma fuel. It is the contention here that a simpler path to fusion can be achieved by creating fusion conditions in a different regime at small scale (~ a few cm). One such program now under study, referred to as Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF), is directed at obtaining fusion in this high energy density regime by rapidly compressing a compact toroidal plasmoid commonly referred to as a Field Reversed Configuration (FRC). To make fusion practical at this smaller scale, an efficient method for compressing the FRC to fusion gain conditions is required. In one variant of MTF a conducting metal shell is imploded electrically. This radially compresses and heats the FRC plasmoid to fusion conditions. The closed magnetic field in the target plasmoid suppresses the thermal transport to the confining shell, thus lowering the imploding power needed to compress the target. The undertaking to be described in this proposal is to provide a suitable target FRC, as well as a simple and robust method for inserting and stopping the FRC within the imploding liner. The timescale for testing and development can be rapidly accelerated by taking advantage of a new facility funded by the Department of Energy. At this facility, two inductive plasma accelerators (IPA) were constructed and tested. Recent experiments with these IPAs have demonstrated the ability to rapidly form, accelerate and merge two hypervelocity FRCs into a compression chamber. The resultant FRC that was formed was hot (T & ion ~ 400 eV), stationary, and stable with a configuration lifetime several times that necessary for the MTF liner experiments. The accelerator length was less than 1 meter, and the time from the initiation of formation to the establishment of the final equilibrium was less than 10 microseconds. With some modification, each accelerator was made capable of producing FRCs suitable for the production of the target plasma for the MTF liner experiment. Based on the initial FRC merging/compression results, the design and methodology for an experimental realization of the target plasma for the MTF liner experiment can now be defined. A high density FRC plasmoid is to be formed and accelerated out of each IPA into a merging/compression chamber similar to the imploding liner at AFRL. The properties of the resultant FRC plasma (size, temperature, density, flux, lifetime) are obtained in the reevant regime of interest. The process still needs to be optimized, and a final design for implementation at AFRL must now be carried out. When implemented at AFRL it is anticipated that the colliding/merging FRCs will then be compressed by the liner. In this manner it is hoped that ultimately a plasma with ion temperatures reaching the 10 keV range and fusion gain near unity can be obtained.

Download or read book Modeling of Present and Proposed Magnetized Target Fusion Experiments written by and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 5 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the concept known as Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF) in the United States and Magnitnoye Obzhatiye (MAGO) in Russia, a preheated and magnetized target plasma is hydrodynamically compressed to fusion conditions. Because the magnetic field suppresses losses by electron thermal conduction in the fuel during the target implosion heating process, the compression may be over a much longer time scale than in traditional inertial confinement fusion. Hence ''liner-on-plasma'' compressions, magnetically driven using relatively inexpensive electrical pulsed power, may be practical. One candidate target plasma known as ''MAGO'' was originated in Russia and is now being jointly developed by the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Physics (VNIIEF) and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Other possible target plasmas now under investigation at LANL include wall-supported deuterium-fiber-initiated Z-pinches and compact toroids. Detailed computational modeling is being done of such target plasmas. In addition, liner-on-plasma compressions of such target plasmas to fusion conditions are being computationally modeled, and experimental and computational investigation of liner implosions suitable for MTF is continuing. Results will be presented.

Download or read book Magneized Target Fusion written by and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Magnetized target fusion (MTF) seeks to take advantage of the reduction of thermal conductivity through the application of a strong magneticfield and thereby ease the requirements for reaching fusion conditions in a thermonuclear (TN) fusion fuel. A potentially important benefit of the strong field in the partial trapping of energetic charged particles to enhance energy deposition by the TN fusion reaction products. The essential physics is described. MTF appears to lead to fusion targets that require orders of magnitude less power and intensity for fusion ignition than currently proposed (unmagnetized) inertial confinement fusion (ICF) targets do, making some very energetic pulsed power drivers attractive for realizing controlled fusion.

Download or read book Study of Plasma Liner Driven Magnetized Target Fusion Via Advanced Simulations written by and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The feasibility of the plasma liner driven Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF) via terascale numerical simulations will be assessed. In the MTF concept, a plasma liner, formed by merging of a number (60 or more) of radial, highly supersonic plasma jets, implodes on the target in the form of two compact plasma toroids, and compresses it to conditions of the fusion ignition. By avoiding major difficulties associated with both the traditional laser driven inertial confinement fusion and solid liner driven MTF, the plasma liner driven MTF potentially provides a low-cost and fast R & D path towards the demonstration of practical fusion energy. High fidelity numerical simulations of full nonlinear models associated with the plasma liner MTF using state-of-art numerical algorithms and terascale computing are necessary in order to resolve uncertainties and provide guidance for future experiments. At Stony Brook University, we have developed unique computational capabilities that ideally suite the MTF problem. The FronTier code, developed in collaboration with BNL and LANL under DOE funding including SciDAC for the simulation of 3D multi-material hydro and MHD flows, has beenbenchmarked and used for fundamental and engineering problems in energy science applications. We have performed 3D simulations of converging supersonic plasma jets, their merger and the formation of the plasma liner, and a study of the corresponding oblique shock problem. We have studied the implosion of the plasma liner on the magnetized plasma target by resolving Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities in 2D and 3D and other relevant physics and estimate thermodynamic conditions of the target at the moment of maximum compression and the hydrodynamic efficiency of the method.

Download or read book Energetic Alpha Transport in a Magnetized Fusion Target written by and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Magnetized target fusion (MTF) promises to ease the power and intensity requirements for a fusion driver. High gain MTF targets require fusion ignition to occur in the magnetized fuel. Ignition requires the energy deposited by the charged fusion reaction products to exceed that lost from the plasma by a variety of loss mechanisms. The authors have used single particle tracking through a magnetized plasma to obtain preliminary results on the DT alpha particle deposition as a function of the plasma [rho]R and BR for a uniform spherically symmetric volume with a uniform B[sub [theta]] magnetic field. More complicated plasma density, temperature, and field distributions can be handled by the code, including 2-D distributions, but the efficiency of this approach makes extensive calculations impractical. A more efficient approach is needed, particularly for use in dynamic calculations. However, particle tracking is useful for obtaining information for building more accurate models of the deposition for use in survey codes.

Download or read book MHD Modeling of Magnetized Target Fusion Experiments written by and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 5 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF) is an alternate approach to controlled fusion in which a dense (0(1017-'8 cm-')), preheated (O(200 ev)), and magnetized (0(100 kG)) target plasma is hydrodynamically compressed by an imploding liner. If electron thermal conduction losses are magnetically suppressed, relatively slow O(1 cm/microsecond) 'liner-on-plasma' compressions may be practical, using liners driven by inexpensive electrical pulsed power. Target plasmas need to remain relatively free of potentially cooling contaminants during formation and compression. Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) calculations including detailed effects of radiation, heat conduction, and resistive field diffusion have been used to model separate target plasma (Russian MAGO, Field Reversed Configuration at Los Alamos National Laboratory) and liner implosion experiments (without plasma fill), such as recently performed at the Air Force Research Laboratory (Albuquerque). Using several different codes, proposed experiments in which such liners are used to compress such target plasmas are now being modeled in one and two dimensions. In this way, it is possible to begin to investigate important issues for the design of such proposed liner-on-plasma fusion experiments. The competing processes of implosion, heating, mixing, and cooling will determine the potential for such MTF experiments to achieve fusion conditions.