Fusion power Fusion power Aneutronic fusion is a (hypothetical) form of fusion power where no more than 1% of the total fusion energy released is carried by neutrons. It has long been a dream of both the conventional and alternative fusion communities because of problems associated with neutrons like radiation damage, biological shielding, remote handling, and safety issues. ...more on Wikipedia about "Aneutronic fusion"
Antimatter catalysed nuclear pulse propulsion is a variation of nuclear pulse propulsion based upon the injection of antimatter into a mass of nuclear fuel which normally would not be useful in propulsion. The anti-protons used to start the reaction are consumed, so it is a misnomer to refer to catalyzation. ...more on Wikipedia about "Antimatter catalyzed nuclear pulse propulsion"
A Field-Reversed Configuration (FRC) is a device developed for magnetic fusion energy research that confines a plasma on closed magnetic field lines without a central penetration. ...more on Wikipedia about "Field-Reversed Configuration"
The fusion energy gain factor, usually expressed with the symbol Q, is the ratio of fusion power produced in a nuclear fusion reactor to the power required to maintain the plasma in steady state. ...more on Wikipedia about "Fusion energy gain factor"
Fusion power is useful energy generated by nuclear fusion reactions. In this kind of reaction two light atomic nuclei fuse together to form a heavier nucleus and release energy. The largest current experiment, JET, has resulted in fusion power production somewhat larger than the power put into the plasma, maintained for a few seconds. In June 2005, the construction of the experimental reactor ITER, designed to produce several times more fusion power than the power into the plasma over many minutes, was announced. The production of net electrical power from fusion is planned for the next generation experiment after ITER. ...more on Wikipedia about "Fusion power"
The Farnsworth–Hirsch Fusor, or simply fusor, is an apparatus designed by Philo T. Farnsworth to create nuclear fusion. It has also been developed in various incarnations by researchers including Elmore, Tuck, and Watson, and more lately by Robert W. Bussard. Unlike most controlled fusion systems, which slowly heat a magnetically confined plasma, the fusor injects "high temperature" ions directly into a reaction chamber, thereby avoiding a considerable amount of complexity. The approach is known as inertial electrostatic confinement. ...more on Wikipedia about "Fusor"
In inertial confinement fusion (ICF), nuclear fusion reactions are initiated by heating and compressing a target – a pellet that most often contains deuterium and tritium – by the use of intense laser or ion beams. The beams explosively detonate the outer layers of the target, accelerating the remaining target layers inward and sending a shock wave into the center. If the shock wave is powerful enough and if high enough density at the center is achieved some of the fuel will be heated enough to cause fusion reactions, releasing energy. In a target which has been heated and compressed to the point of thermonuclear ignition, energy can then heat surrounding fuel to cause it to fuse as well, creating a chain reaction that burns the fuel load, potentially releasing tremendous amounts of energy. Theoretically, if the reaction completes with perfect efficiency (though this is a practically impossible feat), a small amount of fuel about the size of a pinhead, or around 10 milligrams, is capable of releasing the energy equivalent to burning a barrel of oil (that is, chemically combining its hydrocarbon molecules with oxygen). ...more on Wikipedia about "Inertial confinement fusion"
Inertial electrostatic confinement (often abbreviated as IEC) is a concept for retaining a plasma using an electrostatic field. The field accelerates charged particles (either ions or electrons) radially inward, usually in a spherical but sometimes in a cylindrical geometry. Ions can be confined with IEC in order to achieve controlled nuclear fusion. ...more on Wikipedia about "Inertial electrostatic confinement"
The Large Helical Device is a fusion research device located in Japan and is the largest superconducting stellarator in the world and employs a heliotron magnetic field originally developed in Japan. The objective of the project is to conduct fusion plasma confinement research in a steady-state in order to elucidate possible solutions to physics and engineering problems in helical plasma reactors. ...more on Wikipedia about "Large Helical Device"
In nuclear fusion research, the Lawson criterion, first derived by John D. Lawson in 1957 , is an important general measure of a system that defines the conditions needed for a fusion reactor to reach ignition, that is, that the heating of the plasma by the products of the fusion reactions is sufficient to maintain the temperature of the plasma against all losses without external power input. As originally formulated the Lawson criterion gives a minimum required value for the product of the plasma (electron) density ne and the "energy confinement time" τE. Later analyses suggested that a more useful figure of merit is the "triple product" of density, confinement time, and plasma temperature T. The triple product also has a minimum required value, and the name "Lawson criterion" often refers to this inequality. ...more on Wikipedia about "Lawson criterion"
A Levitated Dipole is a unique form of fusion reactor technology using a solid superconducting torus, magnetically levitated in the reactor chamber. The superconductor forms magnetic lines of force of a nature similar to Earth's or Jupiter's magnetospheres, and it is believed that such an appartus could contain plasma more efficiently than other fusion reactor designs. ...more on Wikipedia about "Levitated Dipole"
Within the category of magnetic confinement, there is a basic division between toroidal and open magnetic field topologies. Generally speaking, it is easier to contain a plasma in the direction perpendicular to the field than parallel to it. Parallel confinement can be solved either by bending the field lines back on themselves into circles or, more commonly, toroidal surfaces, or by constricting the bundle of field lines at both ends, which causes some of the particles to be reflected by the mirror effect. The toroidal geometries can be further subdivided according to whether the machine itself has a toroidal geometry, i.e., a solid core through the center of the plasma. The alternative is to dispense with a solid core and rely on currents in the plasma to produce the toroidal field. ...more on Wikipedia about "List of fusion experiments"
The magnetic fusion energy (MFE) program seeks to establish the conditions to sustain a nuclear fusion reaction in a plasma that is contained by magnetic fields to allow the successful production of fusion power. ...more on Wikipedia about "Magnetic fusion energy"
A magnetic mirror is a magnetic field configuration where the field strength changes when moving along a field line. The mirror effect results in a tendency for charged particles to bounce back from the high field region. ...more on Wikipedia about "Magnetic mirror" Evergreen shortopedia!!!
The Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik (IPP) is a physics institute for the investigation of plasma physics, with the aim of working towards fusion power. The institute also works on surface physics, also with focus on problems of fusion power. ...more on Wikipedia about "Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik"
The National Ignition Facility, or NIF, is an ultra-high power laser research device currently under construction at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in Livermore, California. ...more on Wikipedia about "National Ignition Facility"
The Nova laser was a laser built at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 1984 and which conducted advanced inertial confinement fusion experiments until its dismantling in 1999. The Nova laser was capable of delivering approximately 100 kilojoules of infrared light at 1054 nanometers or 40 kilojoules of frequency tripled ultraviolet light at 351 nanometers (the third harmonic of the Nd:Glass fundamental line at 1054 nm) in a pulse duration of about 2 to 4 nanoseconds and thus was capable of producing an ultraviolet pulse power on target in the range of a few tens of terawatts. ...more on Wikipedia about "Nova laser"
The PACER project, carried out at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the mid-1970s, explored the possibility of a fusion power system that would involve exploding small H-bombs (in a later proposal, fission bombs) inside an underground cavity. ...more on Wikipedia about "PACER"
Pyroelectric fusion is a process of nuclear fusion induced by an electric field from pyroelectric crystals. The basic principle is that the pyroelectric effect is used to generate a strong electric field ( gigavolts per metre), by heating the crystal from −30°C to +45°C in a few minutes. The strong field is used to accelerate a beam of the chamber's deuterium atoms from a needle-thin tungsten probe tip mounted on a copper disk into a solid target containing deuterium. Some of the deuterium atoms fuse, producing helium and neutrons. Like muon-catalyzed fusion, the process does not appear to be able to generate net power, but may have other uses. ...more on Wikipedia about "Pyroelectric fusion"
Reversed-Field Pinch (RFP) is a toroidal magnetic confinement scheme. It is an alternative to the Tokamak for building a fusion reactor. It has a low- magnetic-field coil but high-fusion-power density. ...more on Wikipedia about "Reversed field pinch"
The Shiva laser was an extremely powerful 20 beam infrared neodymium glass (silica glass) laser built at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 1977 for the study of inertial confinement fusion and long-scale-length laser-plasma interactions. It was capable of delivering a ~.5 to 1 nanosecond pulse of approxametly 10.2 kilojoules of infrared light at 1.062 micrometres (μm) wavelength (thus achieving a peak power of ~20 terawatts) to a target and ultimately achieved fusion fuel compression to densities of about 50 to 100 times liquid hydrogen density. The Shiva laser provided the highest power, highest energy on target and highest fuel compression of any laser up until its sucessor the Nova laser though, due to the fact that it used such a long wavelength of light for target compression (unlike its frequency doubled and frequency tripled sucessors), target compression and heating was hampered by the production of hot (high kinetic energy) electrons which allowed the hydrogen and deuterium ions to remain relatively cool. John Holzrichter, director of the ICF program at the time said: "The laser beam generates a dense plasma where it impinges on the target material. The laser light gives up its energy to the electrons in the plasma, which absorb the light. The rate at which that happens depends on the wavelength and the intensity. On Shiva, we were heating up electrons to incredible energies, but the targets were not performing well. We tried a lot of stuff to coax the electrons to transfer more of their energy to the target, with no success". The Shiva target chamber utilized high-resolution, high-speed optical and x-ray diagnostic instruments for the characterization of the hot, dense plasmas created during implosion. Shiva was decomissioned in 1981. ...more on Wikipedia about "Shiva laser"
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The Z machine is the largest X-ray generator in the world and is designed to test materials in conditions of extreme temperature and pressure. It is operated by Sandia National Laboratories to gather data to aid in computer modeling of nuclear weapons. ...more on Wikipedia about "Z machine"
In fusion power design, Z-pinch, or zeta pinch is a type of plasma confinement system that uses an electrical current in the plasma to generate a magnetic field that compresses it. The name refers to the direction of the earliest experimental devices in England, where the current flowed down a vertical quartz tube, the Z-axis on a normal mathematical diagram. ...more on Wikipedia about "Z-pinch"
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