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Plasma Power Station with Quasi Spherical Direct Drive Capsule for Fusion Yield and Inverse Diode for Driver-Target Coupling

Fusion Science and Technology

Cuneo, Michael E.; Matzen, M.K.; Sinars, Daniel; Slutz, Stephen A.; Herrmann, Mark H.; Vesey, Roger A.; Seidel, David B.; Schneider, Larry X.; Mikkelson, Kenneth A.; Harper-Slaboszewicz, V.; Sefkow, Adam B.

The Meier-Moir economic model for Pulsed Power Driven Inertial Fusion Energy shows at least two approaches for fusion energy at 7 to 8 cents/kw-hr: One with large yield at 0.1 Hz and presented by M. E. Cuneo at ICENES 2011 and one with smaller yield at 3 Hz presented in this paper. Both use very efficient and low cost Linear Transformer Drivers (LTDs) for the pulsed power. Here, we report the system configuration and end-to-end simulation for the latter option, which is called the Plasma Power Station (PPS), and report the first results on the two, least mature, enabling technologies: a magnetically driven Quasi Spherical Direct Drive (QSDD) capsule for the fusion yield and an Inverse Diode for coupling the driver to the target. In addition, we describe the issues and propose to address the issues with a prototype of the PPS on the Saturn accelerator and with experiments on a short pulse modification of the Z accelerator test the validity of simulations showing megajoule thermonuclear yield with DT on a modified Z.

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Plasma power station with quasi spherical direct drive capsule for fusion yield and inverse diode for driver-target coupling

Fusion Science and Technology

VanDevender, J.P.; Cuneo, Michael E.; Slutz, S.A.; Herrmann, Mark H.; Vesey, Roger A.; Sinars, Daniel; Seidel, David B.; Schneider, Larry X.; Mikkelson, Kenneth A.; Harper-Slaboszewicz, V.; Peyton, B.P.; Sefkow, Adam B.; Matzen, M.K.

The Meier-Moir economic model for Pulsed Power Driven Inertial Fusion Energy shows at least two approaches for fusion energy at 7 to 8 cents/kw-hr: One with large yield at 0.1 Hz and presented by M. E. Cuneo at ICENES 2011 and one with smaller yield at 3 Hz presented in this paper. Both use very efficient and low cost Linear Transformer Drivers (LTDs) for the pulsed power. We report the system configuration and end-toend simulation for the latter option, which is called the Plasma Power Station (PPS), and report the first results on the two, least mature, enabling technologies: a magnetically driven Quasi Spherical Direct Drive (QSDD) capsule for the fusion yield and an Inverse Diode for coupling the driver to the target. In addition, we describe the issues and propose to address the issues with a prototype of the PPS on the Saturn accelerator and with experiments on a short pulse modification of the Z accelerator test the validity of simulations showing megajoule thermonuclear yield with DT on a modified Z.

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Inverse diode for combination of multiple modules and fusion driver-target standoff

Digest of Technical Papers-IEEE International Pulsed Power Conference

VanDevender, J.P.; Seidel, David B.; Mikkelson, Kenneth A.; Thomas, Rayburn D.; Peyton, B.P.; Harper-Slaboszewicz, V.; Mcbride, Ryan; Cuneo, Michael E.; Schneider, Larry X.

A newly invented, multi-megampere inverse diode converts the currents in many electron beams to current in a single Magnetically Insulated Transmission Line (MITL) for driving a common load. Electrons are injected through a transparent anode, cross a vacuum gap, and are absorbed in the cathode of the inverse diode. The cathode current returns to the anode through a load and generates electric and magnetic fields in the anode-cathode gap. Counter streaming electron flow is prevented by self-magnetic insulation in most of the inverse diode and by self-electrostatic insulation where the magnetic field is insufficient. Two-dimensional simulations with a 40 MA, 4 MeV, 40 ns electron beam at 3.5 kA/cm 2 current density, 5 degree beam divergence, and up to 60 degree injection angle show 85% of the injected electron beam current is captured and fed into the MITL. Exploratory experiments with a 2.5 MA, 2.8 MeV, 40 ns electron beam at 2 kA/cm 2at injection normal to the anode gave 70+/-10% collection efficiency in an unoptimized inverse diode. The inverse diode appears to have the potential of coupling multiple pulsed power modules into a common load at rates of change of current ∼1.6× 10 15 A/s required for a fusion energy device called the Plasma Power Station with a Quasi Spherical Direct Drive fusion target. © 2011 IEEE.

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Observation of instability growth in a copper Z-pinch target using two-color monochromatic X-ray backlighting

IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science

Sinars, Daniel; Wenger, D.F.; Peterson, K.J.; Slutz, Stephen A.; Herrmann, Mark H.; Yu, Edmund; Cuneo, Michael E.; Smith, Ian C.; Atherton, B.; Porter, John L.

Existing monochromatic X-ray backlighting diagnostics at 1.865 and 6.151 keV have been combined to create a two-color monochromatic X-ray backlighting diagnostic. The use of different photon energies can allow a much broader range of areal densities to be observed in a single experiment. Here, we apply the two-color backlighter to the study of instability growth on the outside edge of an initially solid copper rod target driven by a 100-ns rise-time current pulse with a peak value of 20 MA. The different opacity of Cu at these two photon energies allows a dynamic range of ∼1600x to be surveyed instead of ∼60x (assuming a useful transmission range of 5%-95%). © 2006 IEEE.

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Stagnation and disruption of wire array Z-pinch radiation sources on the Z pulsed power generator

IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science

Jones, Brent M.; Ampleford, David J.; Nielsen, D.S.; Coverdale, Christine A.; Jennings, Christopher A.; Cuneo, Michael E.

Magnetic implosions provide extremely intense soft X-ray radiation on the Z accelerator. Shock heating at stagnation provides temperatures that are capable of producing K-shell radiation from stainless steel plasma. Time-gated multicolor X-ray pinhole imaging is used to study stagnation and disruption in fast Z pinches. Magnetohydrodynamic instabilities are observed to grow, following peak X-ray power until the Z-pinch column disrupts well after the main power pulse. © 2006 IEEE.

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Results 201–225 of 392
Results 201–225 of 392