NEE533 Spring99 - Lecture 24

How Electrostatic Fusion Works

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The reaction rates predicted in slide 25 and slide 26 do not apply to the IEF concept because the ions are not Maxwellian but rather, limited to a very narrow "temperature" around the accelerating voltage. Therefore the reaction rates must be replotted using the Center-of-Mass energies in terms of the well depth (i. e., the negative bias on the inner grid) This is done in here and while the DT is still favored, its advantage is less and lost altogether above ~100 kV. The key point of this discussion is that the IEF device is more amenable to the use of advanced fusion fuels and the implications of this will be discussed later.

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