Researches on a reactor core in heavy ion inertial fusion

TL;DR

This paper explores the design and key components of a heavy ion inertial fusion reactor core, focusing on beam transport, gas interactions, and reactor safety features for efficient energy production.

Contribution

It presents a comprehensive analysis of a HIF reactor core, including novel insights into beam transport, gas dynamics, and reactor component integration.

Findings

High driver efficiency (~30-40%) of heavy ion beams.

Low target energy gain requirement (~50) for 1GW output.

Implementation of mechanical shutters for safety and contamination control.

Abstract

In this paper a study on a fusion reactor core is presented in heavy ion inertial fusion (HIF), including the heavy ion beam (HIB) transport in a fusion reactor, a HIB interaction with a background gas, reactor cavity gas dynamics, the reactor gas backflow to the beam lines, and a HIB fusion reactor design. The HIB has remarkable preferable features to release the fusion energy in inertial fusion: in particle accelerators HIBs are generated with a high driver efficiency of ~30-40%, and the HIB ions deposit their energy inside of materials. Therefore, a requirement for the fusion target energy gain is relatively low, that would be ~50 to operate a HIF fusion reactor with a standard energy output of 1GW of electricity. In a fusion reactor the HIB charge neutralization is needed for a ballistic HIB transport. Multiple mechanical shutters would be installed at each HIB port at the reactor wall to stop the blast waves and the chamber gas backflow, so that the accelerator final elements would be protected from the reactor gas contaminant. The essential fusion reactor components are discussed in this paper.