Kinetic Approach for Studying the Alpha Particle Transport in Plasma Liner Driven Magnetized Target Fusion
Abstract
A new promising concept for producing energy from thermonuclear fusion is magnetized target fusion (MTF). In MTF, an imploding material liner is used to compress magnetized plasma to fusion ignition and to inertially confine the resulting burning plasma to obtain the necessary energy gain. Plasma liners have the potential to be formed in a repeatable, standoff manner and allow for the possibility of secondary fusion burn in the liner, which allows for much higher fusion energy yields and relaxes the density and scale length requirements of the magnetized target. To date, no theoretical effort has adequately addressed the issue of thermal transport of high-energy alpha particles from the target to the liner. Although the liner/target system is highly collisional at ignition, the fast alpha particle mean free path is relatively large resulting in nonlocal deposition of the kinetic energy into the liner. Thus, a fluid approach may not be appropriate for assessing the possibility of secondary burn. A MATLAB computer code was developed that numerically modeled the alpha particles, electrons, and Deuterons using distribution functions. These distribution functions were separately evolved over time using the Boltzmann equation for the plasma transport and the nonlinear Fokker-Planck equation for the collisions between the alpha particles and the electrons and Deuterons. Preliminary results from this work shows that the alpha particles collide with the initially at rest Deuterons and transfer enough energy so that both species move outward away from the target. In addition, some of the Deuterons reach fusion burn energies.
- Publication:
-
APS Division of Plasma Physics Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- October 2003
- Bibcode:
- 2003APS..DPPLP1160S