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Direct Energy Conversion in Fusion Reactors
Direct Energy Conversion in Fusion Reactors
in Fusion Reactors
By Ralph W. Moir, Lawrence Livermore Laboratories, Livermore, CA
4. A direct converter that can eciently convert 1. Selective Leakage: By means of magnetic and
to electricity the energy released in the form of electrostatic, the ions and electron are made to
charged reaction products. leak selectively through limited regions of the
plasma boundary.
Direct energy conversion thus oers both near and
longterm advantages. In nearterm fusion reactors, it 2. Expansion: The plasma stream is guided and
would improve the power balance by eciently and expanded in volume by a decreasing magnetic
cheaply recirculating power. For the long term, it would field that reduces the power density and con
raise plant eciency because fuel cycles that primarily verts rotational energy to directional energy.
result in charged fusion products can be used: i.e., 3. Electron Separation: The electrons are sepa
rated from the plasma steam and collected on
an electron collector grid, an electrode that
forms the negative terminal of the power source
of the direct energy converter.
Electrons
T+
Selective
Ion Collector (100 kV) 0
Leakage Electron
Collector Grid
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
Electron
(0 kV) Reflector Energy of particle per charge W/q — KeV per charge
Grid (-10 kV)
Figure 1 — One stage direct energy converter with a Figure 2 — Energy distribution of the ions leaking out of a
conically-shaped magnetic expander. mirror fusion reactor.
Ions, as shown in Figure 2, have a wide energy Also, the concept illustrated in Figure 4 is being devel
distribution.3 Therefore, because it has only one collec oped4 for mirror fusion reactors that are fueled and
tor electrode at only one potential, the direct energy heated by the injection of energetic 100 to 200keV
converter shown in Figure 1 is limited in eciency to neutral deuterium and tritium beams. These neutral
about 50 percent.4 Higher eciencies can be obtained beams are formed by first accelerating either D+ and T+
by providing many collectors at dierent potentials so or D and T ions to the desired energy, and then using a
that the ions of dierent energies can be collected on gas cell to convert a fraction of these ions to neutral
electrodes where potentials measured in volts are near atoms. To produce the neutral beam eciently, it is
the initial energies of the ions measured in electron highly desirable to directly convert the energy of those
volts. In the multistage 22stage collector2 shown in ions not converted to neutrals.
Figure 3, the plasma stream is followed into a slab beam Collector Stages
These same principles are being used in several other Figure 3 — Twenty-two stage direct converter, with ion tra-
applications. For example, NASA has developed a prac jectories inside the focusing and collecting system.
tical, multistage, direct energy converter to recover the
energy of an electron beam as it leaves a traveling mi Electrostatic direct energy converters designed for fu
crowave tube.5 sion reactors will encounter various eects that must be
considered in their design. For example:
1. The eciency of the converter may be limited
because of space charge in the collector regions,
secondary electronleakage currents arising
from ion impact and the resulting xrays, volt
age holding and sparking damage, and charge
exchange and ionization of background gas.
2. The lifetime and operation must allow for blis
tering and spalling of collector surfaces because
of He++ bombardment, sputtering, tritium re
covery, and cooling of the electrodes and possi
ble recovery of this energy in a thermal bottom
ing cycle. To be practical, a direct converter
+ 0 - 0
As illustrated in Figure 5, four steps are involved in the
magnetic compressionexpansion cycle for direct energy - 0 + 0
conversion:
Cycles: Compression Thermonuclear Expansion Flush and
Burn Refuel with
1. Compression: A column of plasma is com Plasma
pressed by a magnetic field that acts like a pis
ton. Figure 5 — Magnetic direct energy converter, with the com-
pression, bum, expansion, and refueling parts of the cycle
2. Burn: The compression heats the plasma to shown.
the thermonuclear ignition temperature.
Application of the magnetic compressionexpansion
3. Expansion and Energy Removal: The cycle to reactors involves several considerations:
thermonuclear bum fusion reactions increases
1. Because large expansion ratios are needed for
the plasma pressure and pushes the magnetic
high eciencies, a relatively large vessel is re
field outward.
quired.
4. Refueling: After expansion, the old, partially
2. The rapid current changes place stringent re
burned fuel, D+ and T+, and ash 4 He++ for ex
quirements on superconducting magnets for the
ample, are flushed out; new fuel in the form of
pickup coils.
gas is introduced and ionized; and the cycle is
thus completed. 3. Joule heat losses, switching losses, and storage
of the large power pulses required are critical
The magnetic compressionexpansion concept is being
aspects.
developed by the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory for
the toroidal thetapinch reactor6 and has also been sug 4. To attain reasonable averagepower levels, burn
gested for an ATCtype tokamak reactor being devel times must be maximized, and cooling and re
oped at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.7 fueling times minimized.
Plasma Source Gas Cell Collection
Accelerator Neutralizer Electrodes
5. As with the electrostatic converter, this direct
(135 kV) energy converter must also operate about
D+
D+ D+ D0 or T0 10,000 hours between maintenance cycles.
D0 Neutral
Beam
(150 kV)
Electron Direct Converter
Reflector of Unneutralized
Electrodes Ions
(-40kV)
References
1 George H. Miley; “Fusion Energy Conversion,” Ameri