SBIR Phase I: CHARACTERIZATION OF FUSION GAIN FACTOR Q FOR ORBITRON MICRO FUSION REACTOR

这个第一阶段小型企业创新研究(SBIR)项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发一种名为Orbitron的小型等离子体限制设备，它可以应用于实现低成本、高度可移动的聚变源。从小型、无碳、微型聚变反应堆中获益机会最大的市场是长途卡车运输、海运、航空、分布式能源以及空间电力和推进等“难以脱碳”的行业。小型清洁能源聚变反应堆的开发将是一项对社会具有变革性的技术。拟议的微聚变装置可以利用现成的元素连续生产清洁能源，而不需要使用长期的放射性元素。这种微聚变装置预计也将比较大规模的聚变反应堆便宜几个数量级，并将允许迭代设计和测试以进行优化。这个SBIR第一阶段项目将使基于轨道的微聚变反应堆能够实现聚变增益因子(Q)的预测。轨道科学结合了静电离子陷阱(如轨道诱捕器)和高压微波型电子约束(如磁控管)在“交叉场”中的作用。由此产生的等离子体区域是新颖的，表现出非常高的离子和电子能量、中等密度和长的粒子约束时间。优化的聚变增益因子建模将通过系统锚定和验证粒子在细胞(PIC)代码的实验测量来实现。小型轨道聚变反应堆的离散实验将被用来评估各种等离子体损失机制。这些机制包括燃料离子和中性本底原子之间的电离，粒子对装置壁的散射碰撞和韧致X射线辐射损失。一旦这些机制与PIC代码相关联，将对模拟的聚变等离子体进行详细评估，以确定未来用于能源生产的小型聚变反应堆的潜力Q。这一理解上的进步将有助于开发解决方案，以减少未来原型中的损失机制，以最大限度地提高小型净能量聚变装置的Q。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project is to develop a small plasma confinement device called an orbitron, which could have applications to allow low cost, highly mobile fusion sources. Markets with the largest opportunity to benefit from small, carbon-free, micro-fusion reactors are the “hard-to-decarbonize” industries like long haul trucking, maritime shipping, aviation, distributed energy, and also space power and propulsion. The development of a small clean energy fusion reactor would be a transformative technology for society. The proposed micro-fusion device may enable continuous clean energy production from readily available elements, without the use of long-term radioactive elements. This microfusion device is also expected to be orders of magnitude cheaper than larger scale fusion reactors, and will allow for iterative design and testing for optimization.This SBIR Phase I project will result in the ability to achieve predictions of the fusion gain factor (Q) for orbitron-based micro-fusion reactors. Orbitron science combines aspects of electrostatic ion traps, like an Orbitrap, with high voltage microwave-type electron confinement in “crossed-fields” like a Magnetron. The resulting plasma regime is novel and exhibits very high ion and electron energies, moderate densities, and long particle confinement times. Optimized fusion gain factor modelling will be achieved via systematic anchoring and validation of Particle-in-Cell (PIC) code via experimental measurements. Discrete experiments with small orbitron fusion reactors will be used to assess the various plasma loss mechanisms. These mechanisms include ionization between fuel ions and neutral background atoms, particle scattering collisions to the device walls and Bremsstrahlung X-ray radiation losses. Once these mechanisms are correlated with the PIC code, detailed assessments of the simulated fusion plasma will be made to determine the potential Q of a future small-scale fusion reactor for energy production. This gain in understanding will enable development of solutions to mitigate loss mechanisms in future prototypes to maximize Q for small net energy fusion devices.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.