Focus Fusion Report

June 26th, 2012 Summary:

New theoretical insights explain super-hot plasmoids Resistance measurements show way to higher currents PPRC collaboration covered by the Guardian, Forbes LPP briefs President Obamas Council of Advisors on Science and Technology on fusion progress, collaboration Cathode refinements continue

New theoretical work shows how FF-1 gets ions to 1.8 billion C. Iranian groupindependently confirms LPP theory (Apologies for length of this important item!) Theoretical insights and calculations by LPPs Chief Scientist Eric Lerner and our new summer graduate student, Ahmad Talaei of Utah State University, as well as work by an independent group of physicists at Amirkabir University of Technology in Tehran, have provided a long-sought explanation on how FF-1 has managed to achieve record breaking ion energies, four times hotter than LPPs earlier theory had predicted. The new theoretical improvement will help us to understand and more efficiently guide further experiments. This work and the independent confirmation of our theoretical calculations by the Iranian group reinforce our confidence that our high temperatures will indeed be able to ignite the ideal fusion fuel, hydrogenboron. Since we first observed the 160 keV energies of the ions (equivalent to 1.8 billion C) over a year ago, we had been puzzled as to why they were so much higher than the 40 keV we had predicted. We knew that the earlier predictions, based on theories developed by

Eric and visiting grad student Ahmad Talaei during a visit to Princetons physics library

Australian physicist Heinrich Hora, were only approximate and needed a better physical foundation. But we had not, until now, come up with an improvement. The first big step to the solution came May 15, with the publication online in the Journal of Fusion Energy of a paper by the Iranian team, S. Abolhasani, M. Habibi, and R. Amrollahi, Analytical Study of Quantum Magnetic and Ion Viscous Effects on p11B Fusion in Plasma Focus Devices. The paper studied in greater detail the quantum magnetic field effect originally applied to the DPF by Lerner, for the first time independently confirming our calculations showing that ignition and net energy gain can be achieved with pB11 (hydrogen-boron) fuel, the key to obtaining aneutronic fusion energy. But in addition, the paper applied to the plasma focus device a process studied by British physicist Malcolm Haines to explain high ion energies achieved in the Z-machine. That process, called ion viscous heating works like this: as the plasmoid contracts, ions moving inward at different velocities start to mix together, so that their ordered velocity of motion is converted into the random velocity of heat. By analogy this is a bit like trying to rapidly stir a vicious liquid like honey. The resistance of the liquid to rapid changes in velocityits viscosityconverts kinetic motion to heat and the liquid warms up. The formulae derived in the paper indicated that this viscous heating could possibly explain FF-1s high temperatures. But there was a second puzzle to be solved. The viscous process heats only the ionsthe heavy nucleinot the electrons. If the electrons are too cold, collisions between them and the ions would rapidly cool the ions. So what heated the electrons up hot enough so they would not cool those ions too fast? We had known for many years that the electron beam could not directly heat the electrons in the plasmoid enough. The very fast-traveling electrons in the beam dont stay near other particles for long enough to effectively heat them by collisions. Some other process must helpbut what could it be? Lerner had puzzled over this for years and Dr. Horas theory gave only a very partial answer. On June 10, Lerner thought of a possible solution. The electron beam will induce currents in the plasmoid electrons, just as any rapidly changing current induces other currents in a surrounding conductor (we intend to use this same process to capture the energy of the ion beam with a coil of wire). But since the plasmoid has a much greater density of electrons that the beam, the same current will be distributed over more electrons, and they will be moving much slower than the beam electrons. These slower electrons will have the time to undergo collisions and convert their kinetic energy to heat. Following up on this hypothesis, Talaei found a dozen important papers on this same process of electron beams heating plasma by induced currents, although none applied directly to the plasma focus. Curiously, all the papers dated from the 1970s, the same fertile period that gave rise to the first research on the magnetic field effect. When we combined the formulae from these papers for electron temperatures with the formulae from the viscous heating paper and plugged in the observed values for plasma density, radius and current from FF-1s experiments, the predicted ion energy came out to

170 keVin terrific agreement with our best observed results of 160 keV. Of course more experiments will be needed to fully confirm that this theoretical explanation is right, but this combination of processes is clearly a possible explanation. Interestingly, the effectiveness of the ion viscous heating declines rapidly with increasing density of the plasmoid and smaller plasmoid size, while the effectiveness of the induced current heating rises for smaller, denser, plasmoids. So as we increase plasmoid density we expect to see a temporary decline in temperature, and then a subsequent rise back to the levels needed to burn pB11. Fusion yield will continue to rise, as the higher density and thus higher burn rate will more than compensate for the temporary decline in T. Long as this tale already is, we will have more to say on this heating story in the future! Resistance measurements show way to higher peak current in FF-1 Peak current is one of the key parameters in getting to higher yield, as for every doubling of current we expect roughly a 30-fold increase in fusion energy. Studies by LPP electrical engineer Fred Van Roessel have indicated that in the recent shots in May, where we experienced arcing problems, the resistance of the device was much higher than usual. If we confirm that this resistance is in fact due to arcing, then our steps to eliminate arcing can boost total current delivered over 2 MAclose to our design goal-even with the switches we are now using. The resistancea measure of how much of the current is dissipated as heatreduces the current delivered to the plasma. It can be measured by looking at the wave of current that occurs when there is no pinch. (The pinch and subsequent formation of the plasmoid greatly complicate matters by consuming a lot of energy.) Van Roessel fitted theoretical curves (see figure 1) to the measured ones. The faster the current wave decreases, the more the resistance. He found that in the May shots, resistance was as high as 17-20 mOhms, while in earlier shots, with less arcing, resistance was only 5-6 mOhms. In theory, the metal parts of FF-1 that carry the current, the switches and capacitors should have no more than 2 mOhms resistance. While these resistances may seem small, at FF-1s very high current, they are very significant. At 1 MA, a resistance of 20 mOhms creates a voltage drop of 20 kV, half the entire charging voltage of the capacitors. If, as seems likely, the change in resistance is due to arcing, we believe that the total elimination of arcing, which we are working on now, may drop the resistance to as low as 2 mOhms. In that case, simulation programs developed by Dr. Sing Lee predict that with

Figure 1: FF-1s resistance calculated by matching calculated and observed curves. full power, shorter electrodes, and our existing switches, FF-1 will produce over 2.3 MA, over twice our current output. New, faster switches now under design for LPP by Raytheon will get us the rest of the way to our goal of 2.8 MA. PPRC collaboration covered by the Guardian, Forbes LPPs agreement with the Plasma Physics Research Center on May 25th made waves, with Mark Halper breaking the story for leading UK paper the Guardian, while Alex Knapp at Forbes also spread the word: "U.S. Company Teams With Iranian University To Develop Fusion Power."

Stay tuned to the LPP Media page and especially @LPPX on Twitter for breaking developments.

LPP briefs Presidents Council of Advisors on Science and Technology on fusion progress, Iran collaboration On Friday, May 25th, LPPs Director of Business Development and Lab Coordinator Derek Shannon represented Lawrenceville Plasma Physics in providing one of five public comments at that day's meeting of President Obama's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, or PCAST. Dereks remarks were well received, and three PCAST members with physics backgrounds took copies of our publications for review. The brief remarks are on our website, and you can also watch them delivered at 10:29 in the archived webcast available here. After the meeting, copies of the remarks were delivered to several of the offices of New Jersey's congressional delegation. We will continue to follow-up with PCAST members and Congress about our progress. Above right: Derek uses a copper gasket to show the size of our vacuum chamber. Cathode refinements continue, but machining takes time Our major test of the new serrated-edge cathode plate was again delayed, mainly due to waiting in line at machine shops. First, our plans for vacuum-brazing the tungsten and copper pieces together to end arcing between them had to be modified. The stresses generated by heating the piece hot enough for the first brazing material that was selected would have created mechanical stress that could have crushed the tungstendue to the very different thermal expansion of copper and tungsten. Thanks are due to LPP investor Rudy Fritsch for confirming with CAD studies our suspicions that this was a risk. A lower-melting-point solder was substituted and, after a couple of tries seems to have worked well. However, somehow the tungsten teeth were chipped ator in transit fromthe brazing shop, so have to be re-cut, which involves waiting for a turn at our machine shop. We now expect tests to resume in early July. Expect fireworks!

Personnel We welcome to LPP our new summer graduate student, Ahmad Talaei, who is now in a plasma physics PhD program at Utah State University. Mr. Talaei worked with plasma focus devices in his native Iran, publishing a number of papers. He was a student of two of the authors of the heating paper cited above and in his first two weeks at LPP has already started to contribute handsomely to our theoretical work. He will be with us until the end of August. Cause for celebration: LPP friends & family gather to celebrate our collaboration with the Plasma Physics Research Center.