Effect of Internal Breeding of Tritium and Helium-3 on the Ignition of an ICF Fuel Pellet

TL;DR

This paper investigates how internal breeding of tritium and helium-3 within ICF fuel pellets influences ignition conditions, showing that their early production can lower the temperature needed for ignition.

Contribution

It introduces a dynamic calculation of power equations demonstrating the impact of internal breeding on ignition thresholds in ICF fuels.

Findings

Internal breeding lowers ignition temperature thresholds.

Early production of tritium and helium-3 facilitates ignition.

Dynamic power equation analysis supports these conclusions.

Abstract

Self-heating condition and following ignition in an Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) fuel pellet is evaluated by calculating the power equations, dynamically. In fact, the self-heating condition is a criterion that determines the minimum parameters of a fuel (such as temperature, density and areal density) that can be ignited. Deuterium is the main component of ICF fuels as large amounts of it are naturally available. In addition, the use of deuterium as a fuel in ICF causes the production of tritium and helium-3. However, pure deuterium has a high ignition temperature (T$\geq$40 keV) which makes it inefficient. In this paper, the power equations are solved, dynamically, and it has been indicated that internal tritium and helium-3 production at early evolution of compressed deuterium fuel causes ignition at lower predicted temperatures.