AAWSAP DIRD, Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Fusion, March 2010

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UNCLASSIFIED/fFOA QFFIEIAL ~81: 8HLY
Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Fusion
Preface
This report is intended to provide the reader with an overview of the basics,
current experimental status, supporting theory, and potential applications of
inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC} fusion. Emphasis is placed on work in
these areas at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, although some
other research is brought in.
The report shows that IEC is a unique approach to fusion in that it offers a
number of "spin-off" applications, such as a small neutron source for neutron
activation analysis on the route to fusion power. The report further shows that
IEC is one of the few potential fusion approaches that can potentially burn
aneutronic fuels like p- 11B (hydrogen - Boron 11). In aneutronic fusion,
neutrons carry no more than 1% of the total released energy, greatly reducing
problems associated with neutron radiation. That ability, combined with its
simple mechanical structure and small size, make the IEC reactor, if achieved,
an ideal fusion power unit. Present experimental devices are four to five
orders of magnitude below breakeven (energy out/in = 1) energy gain for p­
11B. However, it is argued that the ability to study the physics in very-small­
volume plasmas makes it possible to rapidly investigate scale-up to a power­
producing device. As an example, the report concludes with a conceptual
experiment proposed for demonstration of breakeven conditions for p- 11B
using a hydrogen plasma simulation.
The author has purposely tried to avoid use of ,equations in this report to
enhance readability and to stress concepts rather than analysis. However,
considerable analysis is provided in a number of the source references cited.
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