Title :
Characteristics of an electron-beam rocket pellet accelerator
Author :
Tsai, C.C. ; Foster, C.A. ; Schechter, D.E.
Author_Institution :
Oak Ridge Nat. Lab., TN, USA
Abstract :
An electron-beam rocket pellet accelerator has been designed, built, assembled, and tested as a proof-of-principle (POP) apparatus. The main goal of accelerators based on this concept is to use intense electron-beam heating and ablation of a hydrogen propellant stick to accelerate deuterium and/or tritium pellets to ultrahigh speeds (10 to 20 km/s) for the plasma fueling of fusion devices such as the International Thermonuclear Engineering Reactor (ITER). The POP apparatus is described, and initial results of pellet-acceleration experiments are presented. Conceptual ultrahigh-speed pellet accelerators are discussed
Keywords :
fusion reactor theory and design; plasma heating; 10000 m/s; 20000 m/s; D pellets; ITER; International Thermonuclear Engineering Reactor; T pellets; ablation; electron-beam heating; electron-beam rocket pellet accelerator; pellet-acceleration experiments; proof-of-principle; ultrahigh-speed pellet accelerators; Acceleration; Assembly; Electron accelerators; Heat engines; Hydrogen; Life estimation; Plasma accelerators; Propulsion; Rockets; Testing;
Conference_Titel :
Fusion Engineering, 1989. Proceedings., IEEE Thirteenth Symposium on
Conference_Location :
Knoxville, TN
DOI :
10.1109/FUSION.1989.102435
