High yield fusion in a Staged Z-pinch
Abstract
We simulate fusion in a Z-pinch; where the load is a xenon-plasma liner imploding onto a deuterium-tritium plasma target and the driver is a 2 MJ, 17 MA, 95 ns risetime pulser. The implosion system is modeled using the dynamic, 2-1/2 D, radiation-MHD code, MACH2. During implosion a shock forms in the Xe liner, transporting current and energy radially inward. After collision with the DT, a secondary shock forms pre-heating the DT to several hundred eV. Adiabatic compression leads subsequently to a fusion burn, as the target is surrounded by a flux-compressed, intense, azimuthal-magnetic field. The intense-magnetic field confines fusion -particles, providing an additional source of ion heating that leads to target ignition. The target remains stable up to the time of ignition. Predictions are for a neutron yield of and a thermonuclear energy of 84 MJ, that is, 42 times greater than the initial, capacitor-stored energy.
Cite
@article{arxiv.0812.1815,
title = {High yield fusion in a Staged Z-pinch},
author = {H. U. Rahman and F. J. Wessel and N. Rostoker and P. Ney},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0812.1815},
year = {2009}
}