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Experimental Demonstration of Fusion-Relevant Conditions in Magnetized Liner Inertial Fusion

M. R. Gomez et al.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 155003 – Published 6 October 2014
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Abstract

This Letter presents results from the first fully integrated experiments testing the magnetized liner inertial fusion concept [S. A. Slutz et al., Phys. Plasmas 17, 056303 (2010)], in which a cylinder of deuterium gas with a preimposed 10 T axial magnetic field is heated by Z beamlet, a 2.5 kJ, 1 TW laser, and magnetically imploded by a 19 MA, 100 ns rise time current on the Z facility. Despite a predicted peak implosion velocity of only 70km/s, the fuel reaches a stagnation temperature of approximately 3 keV, with TeTi, and produces up to 2×1012 thermonuclear deuterium-deuterium neutrons. X-ray emission indicates a hot fuel region with full width at half maximum ranging from 60 to 120μm over a 6 mm height and lasting approximately 2 ns. Greater than 1010 secondary deuterium-tritium neutrons were observed, indicating significant fuel magnetization given that the estimated radial areal density of the plasma is only 2mg/cm2.

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  • Received 18 June 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.155003

© 2014 American Physical Society

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Magnetic Fields Lock in the Heat for Fusion

Published 14 October 2014

Sandia researchers demonstrate that magnetic fields help retain heat in an imploding pellet of fuel, increasing the number of fusion reactions.

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Vol. 113, Iss. 15 — 10 October 2014

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