Acceleration of mini-projectiles using a small-caliber electrothermal gun for fusion applications

Summary form only given. The small-caliber electrothermal plasma gun SIRENS has been used to accelerate mini-projectiles to demonstrate the feasibility of using such guns as a pellet injector for fuelling of future fusion reactors. The gun has been modified to accommodate acceleration of plastic projectiles to simulate frozen hydrogenic pellets required to fuel fusion reactors. Barrel sections are equipped with diagnostics for velocity and position of the projectile. The length of the acceleration path could be varied between 15 and 45 cm. The pulse forming network (PFN) on provide up to 100 kJ discharge energy over 0.1 to 1.0 ms pulse duration. The projectile velocities have been measured via a set of breakwires. The ODIN code has been modified to account for the projectile mass, acceleration and friction. The measured velocity represents an average velocity between the last two breakwires and not the local velocity.