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1
Direct Fusion Drive for distributed terrestrial power
Michael Paluszek and Stephanie Thomas
PFRC-‐2 Experiment at PPPL
3
DFD: Small AND Clean
3/26/15
! A 1-20 MW reactor is the size of a mini-van ! Low radioactivity
- Little shielding required to prevent neutron escape - Disposal at end of life is to move the DFD to a disposal site
! Mass produced in a factory ! Come with fuel for their design life ! Multiple units provide higher power ! Fixed base or portable units
4
DFD Fuel
3/26/15
! Selected fuel is D + 3He (deuterium and helium-3) - Low neutron reactions (low radiation), aka aneutronic
! Terrestrial helium-3 production enough for 100 MW power generation/year
! Additional sources - Plenty of 3He on the moon - An operating DFD would spur lunar mining - D-D breeding reactors
! Option is to use just deuterium - More neutrons but there may be ways of minimizing the
increase
5
PFRC Ongoing Research
3/26/15
! Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory performing experiments with DOE funding - Concluded PFRC-1 a, b, c in 2011; breakthrough achieved in FRC electron heating
methods - PFRC-2 operating now; goal is to demonstrate keV plasmas with pulse lengths to 0.3 s - MNX studies on plasma detachment via nozzle
! Princeton Satellite Systems performing mission and trajectory design, space balance of plant studies under IR&D - Four joint PPPL/PSS patents
6
DFD Phased Development
3/26/15
! Complete PFRC-2 experiments – ion heating
! Design PFRC-3 and conduct experiments - Fast Track – design PFRC-3
subsystems to production standards
! Design and build PFRC-4 - Burning plasma reactor - Would produce fusion power
! Build prototype power reactor ! Production ! Roughly $50M to get to 3B
8
Magnetic Fusion Energy Background
3/26/15
! Fusion power has been produced in D-T tokamaks - PPPL Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) 10.7 MW - Joint European Torus (JET) 16.1 MW
with a fusion energy gain (Q) of 0.6 - Japanese JT-60 has effective Q (if DT were used) of 1.25
! ITER will develop the engineering needed for baseload power generation from D-T tokamaks - Prototype D-T reactor DEMO would follow ITER
! Several other D-T-fueled configurations under study - Stellarators, spherical tokamaks, etc
10
PFRC: Small and Clean
3/26/15
ITER PFRC
! 1-10 MW ! Separatrix radius 30 cm ! 1e-3 volume and mass ! 5e-4 radioactivity (0.2
MW) ! Tritium exhausted
! Simple solenoid and no breeding blanket
! Ordinary materials
! 0.5 GW ! Separatrix radius 8 m ! Machine 60 m tall ! 400 MW radiation ! Tritium fuses,
producing high-energy neutrons
! Complex coils and T breeding blanket
! Hazardous lithium ➨ ~1/1000 cost
11
Fusion Core: D-3He (low level of neutrons)
3/26/15
! Field Reversed Configuration (FRC) - Simple geometry
! Heating with odd-parity rotating magnetic fields - Limits size to 20 MW
! Confinement with high temperature superconducting coils ! Burns D and 3He
- Could use just D for terrestrial power ! Field Reversed Configuration is a toroidal plasma with
closed magnetic fields - Small FRC not prone to tilt instabilities
! Odd-parity rotating magnetic fields heat the plasma - The symmetry of this heating method improves confinement
13
Challenges of Direct Fusion Drive
3/26/15
! Need to demonstrate a burning plasma - PFRC-3A or PFRC-4
! Need to get or breed helium-3 - Not that much needed, terrestrial sources have enough to support small-
scale implementation - Moon and gas giants, D-D breeding are future sources
! Need all the supporting hardware to be have high reliability - Minimal maintenance
! Radiation shielding - Neutrons (but not too many) - Bremsstrahlung – x-rays - Synchrotron
14
Ongoing Work
3/26/15
! Numerical plasma models using LSP - PIC code
! Ion heating experiment in PFRC-2 - Expect additional grad students this year
! Design of RF heating system
Growing commitments
15
For More Information
3/26/15
Michael Paluszek [email protected]
Stephanie Thomas [email protected]
Dr. Samuel Cohen [email protected]
Princeton Satellite Systems 6 Market St. Suite 926 Plainsboro, NJ 08536
(609) 275-9606 http://www.psatellite.com
15
17 3/26/15
Possible Fusion Reactions
3/26/15
p +11 B !3 4He + 8.7 MeV
D+3 He !4He (3.6 MeV) + p (14.7 MeV)
D + T !4He (3.5 MeV) + n (14.1 MeV)
D + D !T (1.01 MeV) + p (3.02 MeV)
D + D !3He (0.82 MeV) + n (2.45 MeV)
D-3He reactors will also have D-D reactions, hence D-T reactions, unless the T fusion products are quickly removed.
Boron - proton produces very few neutrons
DFD
T0kamak
18 3/26/15
Reaction Rates
3/26/15 Princeton Satellite Systems
Reaction Rates
100 101 102 10310−40
10−38
10−36
10−34
10−32
10−30
10−28
10−26
10−24
10−22
10−20
Mea
n Si
gma
V (m
3 /sec
)
Temperature (KeV)
D−D−nD−D−pD−TD−He3p−B11
D-T
D-3He D-D
p-11B
x x x
Reactor operating temperatures
19
Rotating Magnetic Fields
3/26/15
! Parity refers to the RMF dipole vector symmetry
! Odd means it flips at z=0 ! Frequency is a fraction of the
ion cyclotron frequency for the helium-3
! Provides all the startup power and a fraction of the heating power during operation
! Would be 0.6 to 6 MHz ! Antennas shown to the right