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DFD Terrestrial
This document summarizes research on the Direct Fusion Drive (DFD) for terrestrial power generation. Key points include: - The DFD reactor design is small (size of a mini-van) and produces low levels of radiation, requiring minimal shielding. It can be mass produced and fueled to operate autonomously for its design lifetime. - The DFD uses the aneutronic fusion reaction of deuterium and helium-3 to produce low neutron emissions. Ongoing experiments at PPPL aim to demonstrate keV plasma temperatures for 0.3 seconds to develop the technology. - If successful, the DFD could lead to a multi-MW fusion power reactor by first completing
DFD Terrestrial
- 1. 1 Direct Fusion Drive fordistributed terrestrial power Michael Paluszek and Stephanie Thomas PFRC-‐2 Experiment at PPPL
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- 3. 3 DFD: Small ANDClean 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. 4 DFD Fuel 3/26/15 ! Selectedfuel 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. 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. 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
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- 8. 8 Magnetic Fusion EnergyBackground 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
- 9. 9 Comparison of Reactors ITERresearch reactor: 60 m tall PFRC reactor: 8 m long
- 10. 10 PFRC: Small andClean 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. 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
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- 13. 13 Challenges of DirectFusion 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. 14 Ongoing Work 3/26/15 ! Numericalplasma 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. 15 For More Information 3/26/15 MichaelPaluszek map@psatellite.com Stephanie Thomas sjthomas@psatellite.com Dr. Samuel Cohen scohen@pppl.gov Princeton Satellite Systems 6 Market St. Suite 926 Plainsboro, NJ 08536 (609) 275-9606 http://www.psatellite.com 15
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- 17. 17 3/26/15 Possible FusionReactions 3/26/15 p +11 B !3 4 He + 8.7 MeV D +3 He !4 He (3.6 MeV) + p (14.7 MeV) D + T !4 He (3.5 MeV) + n (14.1 MeV) D + D !T (1.01 MeV) + p (3.02 MeV) D + D !3 He (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. 18 3/26/15 Reaction Rates 3/26/15 PrincetonSatellite Systems Reaction Rates 10 0 10 1 10 2 10 3 10 −40 10 −38 10 −36 10 −34 10 −32 10 −30 10 −28 10 −26 10 −24 10 −22 10 −20 MeanSigmaV(m3 /sec) Temperature (KeV) D−D−n D−D−p D−T D−He3 p−B11 D-T D-3He D-D p-11B x x x Reactor operating temperatures
- 19. 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
- 20. 20 Reactor Crosssection 3/26/15 15 cm10B4C shielding Hi-T superconducting M. Walsh, K. Griffin