Driver-reactor interface for heavy ion fusion

The Westinghouse Electric Corporation has completed an ICF Central Station Electric Generating Plant Study.¹ In this study, two conceptual designs, based on a C02 laser driver and a heavy ion driver, were developed. The point reference design for the heavy ion driver is based on an rf linac, storage ring, and magnetic quadrupole focusing system, which accelerates singly charged xenon ions to 10 GeV, accumulates and bunches the ions into 20 storage rings, then compresses them in 20 transport lines to 13 ns pulses containing 1 kA. The beams are ballistically transported to the target pellet through a 5 × 10⁻⁴ Torr background pressure in a 10 m radius reactor.² The point reference design results from a theoretical model which has been developed in an attempt to set forth a self-consistent set of equations that define an envelope within which real drivers of this type must fall. The model concentrated on those parts which most impact the basic conceptual design, system size, or cost.