ABSTRACT
The Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics in worldwide collaboration has developed a project of a 14 MeV neutron source for fusion material studies and other applications. The projected neutron source of the plasma type is based on the gas dynamic trap (GDT), which is a special magnetic mirror system for plasma confinement. Essential progress in plasma parameters has been achieved in recent experiments at the GDT facility in the Budker Institute, which is a hydrogen (deuterium) prototype of the source. Stable confinement of hot-ion plasmas with the relative pressure exceeding 0.5 was demonstrated. The electron temperature was increased up to 0.9 keV in the regime with additional electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) of a moderate power. These parameters are the record for axisymmetric open mirror traps. These achievements elevate the projects of a GDT-based neutron source on a higher level of competitive ability and make it possible to construct a source with parameters suitable for materials testing today. The paper presents the progress in experimental studies and numerical simulations of the mirror-based fusion neutron source and its possible applications including a fusion material test facility and a fusion-fission hybrid system.
ABSTRACT
An incomplete neutral beam capture can degrade the plasma performance in neutral beam driven plasma machines. The beam dumps mitigating the shine-through beam recycling must entrap and retain large particle loads while maintaining the beam-exposed surfaces clean of the residual impurities. The cathodic arc gettering, which provides high evaporation rate coupled with a fast time response, is a powerful and versatile technique for depositing clean getter films in vacuum. A compact neutral beam dump utilizing the titanium arc gettering was developed for a field-reversed configuration plasma sustained by 1 MW, 20-40 keV neutral hydrogen beams. The titanium evaporator features a new improved design. The beam dump is capable of handling large pulsed gas loads, has a high sorption capacity, and is robust and reliable. With the beam particle flux density of 5 × 10(17) H∕(cm(2) s) sustained for 3-10 ms, the beam recycling coefficient, defined as twice the ratio of the hydrogen molecular flux leaving the beam dump to the incident flux of high-energy neutral atoms, is â¼0.7. The use of the beam dump allows us to significantly reduce the recycling of the shine-through neutral beam as well as to improve the vacuum conditions in the machine.
ABSTRACT
In the axially symmetric magnetic mirror device gas dynamic trap (GDT), on-axis transverse beta (ratio of the transverse plasma pressure to magnetic field pressure) exceeding 0.4 in the fast ion turning points has been first achieved. The plasma has been heated by injection of neutral beams, which at the same time produced anisotropic fast ions. Neither enhanced losses of the plasma nor anomalies in the fast ion scattering and slowing down were observed. This observation confirms predicted magnetohydrodynamic stability of plasma in the axially symmetric mirror devices with average min-B, like the GDT is. The measured beta value is rather close to that expected in different versions of the GDT based 14 MeV neutron source for fusion materials testing.
