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P-B11 Fusion with the Dense Plasma Focus Eric J Theory and experimental program for p-B11 Fusion with the Dense Plasma Focus Eric J. Lerner, S. Krupakar Murali, and A. Haboub Lawrenceville Plasma Physics Inc. 128 Lincoln Blvd. Middlesex, NJ 08846-1022, USA Tel: (732) 356 5900, Fax: (732) 377 0381, E-mail: [email protected] Abstract: Lawrenceville Plasma Physics Inc. has conversion of the kinetic energy of these charged initiated a two-year-long experimental project to particles into electricity without going through the test the scientific feasibility of achieving inherently expensive process of using heat to controlled fusion using the dense plasma focus produce steam to run a turbine and generator. It (DPF) device with hydrogen-boron (p-B11) fuel. thus opens up the possibly of drastically reducing The goals of the experiment are: first, to confirm the cost of electricity generation. [1-3] the achievement of high ion and electron energies 4 11 14 observed in previous experiments from 2001; While a secondary reaction, He +B N + n, second, to greatly increase the efficiency of does produce neutrons, they carry only 0.2% of energy transfer into the plasmoid where the fusion the fusion energy and are low-energy neutrons, reactions take place; third, to achieve the high which are easily shielded. Thus this fuel makes magnetic fields (>1 GG) needed for the quantum conceivable the design of a generator that magnetic field effect, which will reduce cooling of produces insignificant amounts of induced the plasma by x-ray emission; and finally, to use radioactivity, and no radioactive waste. These 11 p-B11 fuel to demonstrate net energy gain. The characteristics give p-B very significant experiments are being conducted with a newly operational advantages over deuterium-tritium constructed dense plasma focus in Middlesex, NJ (DT) fuel. which is expected to generate peak currents in However, p-B11 presents two major technical excess of 2 MA. Some preliminary results are challenges that have discouraged funding and reported. research. First, the reaction requires average ion Key words: Dense plasma focus, quantum energies above 100 keV, considerably higher than magnetic field effect, nuclear fusion, aneutronic the 40 keV envisioned for DT fuel, and the fusion requirement for plasma density-confinement time product (n) is also a factor of 45 times higher for 1. Introduction net energy production. Second, the higher atomic charge of boron ions leads to the production of far Controlled nuclear fusion using hydrogen-Boron- greater amounts of X-ray energy than DT, and the 11 (p-B11) fuel would constitute a transformative emission of such X-ray energy cools the plasma, source of electricity with major advantages over making plasma heating more difficult. We have any other known source of energy. No neutrons taken steps to show how both of these technical are produced in this reaction, p + B11 3 He4, challenges can be overcome using the DPF. and the released energy is carried only by charged particles. This makes possible the direct 1 2. Dense Plasma Focus (DPF) the present author[20-24]. In this model, the electron beam transfers part of its energy to the The DPF is a compact and simple device first plasmoid electrons, which generate X-rays developed in the 1960s by N. V. Filippov in the through collisions with nuclei. Through a plasma USSR and by J. W. Mather in the USA and has instability (probably ion-acoustic), the electrons been studied by dozens of groups over the last 45 then transfer part of their energy to the ions, with years, resulting a large and rich literature. It a typical delay (in our experiments) of ~10 ns. consists of two concentric cylindrical electrodes Ion collisions, generating fusion reactions and enclosed in a vacuum chamber. The chamber is neutrons, then occur [24]. When the ion and evacuated to low pressure and then backfilled to electron beams have exhausted the magnetic several torr with the fuel gas. A pulse of energy that confines the plasmoid, and partially or electricity with a rise time of 0.2-10 s from a wholly evacuated the particles in the plasmoid, the capacitor bank is discharged across the electrodes fusion reactions end. during operation. [4] In operation, the capacitors discharge in a several-microsecond pulse, the gas The DPF routinely produces hard X-rays and is ionized and a current sheath, consisting of gamma rays indicating the presence of pinched current filaments, forms and runs down bremsstrahlung radiation from high-energy the electrodes. When the sheath reaches the end electrons colliding with nuclei[21]. Together with of the inner electrode (the anode), the filaments independent evidence, this indicated that the hot pinch together, forming dense, magnetically- spots contained ions and electrons at very high confined, hot spots or plasmoids.[5-6] The energies in the range of interest for advanced fuel plasmoids emit X-rays with energy from several fusion [6, 14, 15, 22-24]. keV to over 100 keV. X-ray pinhole images have The Bostick-Nardi model detailed in [4] describes demonstrated that the plasmoids are tiny, with radii of tens of microns or less [7-11]. The the DPF as operating by exploiting a series of 20 natural instabilities in the plasma, with each plasmoids have densities in the range of 10 - 21 3 . instability further concentrating the plasma and 10 /cm These densities have been measured by the magnetic field produced by the currents a number of independent methods including heavy running through the plasma. In the past few ion and secondary product fusion[12-13], CO2 laser scattering[14], and x-ray line decades, substantial advances have occurred in understanding the basic physics of such intensities[15].These plasmoids emit intense instabilities through experiments and observations beams of accelerated ions and electrons[16-19]. of space plasma. Fusion neutrons are emitted from the device in 13 large quantities (up to 10 ) per shot. In the first instability, the current sheath moving through the plasma between electrodes breaks up The role of the plasmoids in producing the fusion into an array of filaments, increasing the density neutrons and the physical processes involved in of the plasma and magnetic field strength by a their formation and maintenance has been hotly factor of 10-20. The filamentary current sheath, debated among DPF researchers for decades. The driven by the interaction of its own currents and model that best fits all the existing data makes the magnetic field, travels down to the end of the role of the plasmoids central to neutron inner hollow electrode, where the filaments production. This model, initially developed by Bostick and Nardi[4], and confirmed by converge into a single central pinch region, further concentrating both plasma and magnetic fields. A observations of several groups over three decades, third instability then kinks the single central was elaborated into a more quantitative theory by 2 filament like an over-twisted phone cord, forming ~sin2, where is the angle between the ion a plasmoid, an extremely dense, magnetically self- velocity and the B field direction[22]. confined ball of plasma only tens of microns across. By this time, the density and magnetic In a strong magnetic field, since angular fields of the plasma in this small region are tens of momentum is quantized in units of ћ, electrons thousands of times larger than those present at the can have only discrete energy levels, termed start of the process, and a substantial fraction of Landau levels (ignoring motion parallel to the the energy fed into the device is contained in the magnetic field): plasmoid. A fourth instability causes the magnetic 1 eB 1 fields at the center of plasmoid to decrease, and Eb n 2 n 2 11.6eV B(GG) (1) these changing magnetic fields induce an electric mc field, which generates a beam of electrons in one Since maximum momentum transfer is mv, where direction and a beam of ions in the other. The 2 v is relative velocity, for mv /2< Eb almost no electron beam heats the plasmoid electrons which excitation of electrons to the next Landau level in turn heat the ions, thus igniting fusion can occur, so very little energy can be transferred reactions. The energy is released in the ion and to the electrons in such collisions. Again ignoring electron beams and in a burst of X-ray energy the electron's own motion along the field lines, from the heated electrons in the plasmoid. such a condition will occur when ion energy In addition to its very small size, simplicity, and M ability to utilize the inherent plasma instabilities Ei Eb (2) (rather than suppressing them), the DPF also has m the advantage that the plasmoid is extremely For E =300keV, this implies B>14GG for p, dense. Such a dense plasmoid requires that the i B>3.5GG for and B>1.3GG for 11B. As will ions be confined for only a few thousand orbits, in be shown below, such field strengths should be contrast to the millions of orbits required in attainable with the DPF. tokomaks or most other fusion devices. Thus the high stability of such devices is not required in the DPF, only meta-stability. As calculated[22], for T=Ti/Eb(M/m)<1, the coulomb logarithm can drop as low as 0.5 for the 3. Quantum Magnetic Field (QMF) Effect heating of electrons by ions, which can only heat electrons that are moving slower than the ions. Lerner theoretically showed [22] that the problem For the heating of the ions by the much faster 11 thermal electrons, with T >>1, quantum effects of high X-ray emission with p-B could be e can be ignored and the coulomb logarithm is mitigated through the use of the QMF effect.
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