Preventing ash from poisoning proton-boron 11 fusion plasmas

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel plasma separation strategy for proton-boron 11 fusion that mitigates alpha particle poisoning, potentially enabling net power production despite slow alpha extraction.

Contribution

It introduces a plasma demixing method that isolates alpha particles, improving the feasibility of pB11 fusion for energy generation.

Findings

Separation of plasma into fusion and alpha storage regions reduces alpha poisoning

Net power production is achievable even with slow alpha extraction

Demixing strategy simplifies pB11 fusion implementation

Abstract

Proton-Boron 11 (pB11) fusion is safe and clean, but also difficult to harness for breakeven power production. Particularly deleterious are fusion-born alpha particles, which massively increase both plasma pressure and bremsstrahlung losses unless they are pulled promptly from the plasma. We show that even if one cannot extract the alphas quickly, one can still achieve net power production, by separating the plasma into two regions: a fusion region, accessible to all species, and an alpha storage region, accessible only to alphas and electrons. This new demixing strategy could make pB11 fusion much easier to achieve.