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

这个第一阶段小企业创新研究（SBIR）项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发一种称为轨道子的小型等离子体约束装置，它可以应用于低成本、高移动的聚变源。从小型无碳微型聚变反应堆中获益最大的市场是“难以脱碳”的行业，如长途卡车运输、海运、航空、分布式能源以及太空动力和推进。小型清洁能源聚变反应堆的开发将是社会的一项变革性技术。所提出的微聚变装置可以使从容易获得的元素连续生产清洁能源，而不使用长期放射性元素。这种微聚变装置也有望比大型聚变反应堆便宜几个数量级，并将允许迭代设计和优化测试。SBIR第一阶段项目将实现轨道微聚变反应堆的聚变增益因子(Q)预测。轨道子科学将静电离子阱（如Orbitrap）与“交叉场”中的高压微波型电子约束（如磁控管）相结合。由此产生的等离子体状态是新颖的，具有非常高的离子和电子能量，中等密度和较长的粒子约束时间。优化的融合增益因子建模将通过系统锚定和验证粒子在细胞（PIC）代码通过实验测量来实现。小型轨道聚变反应堆的离散实验将用于评估各种等离子体损失机制。这些机制包括燃料离子与中性背景原子之间的电离、粒子对器件壁的散射碰撞和轫致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在Q。这种理解的增加将有助于开发解决方案，以减轻未来原型中的损失机制，从而最大化小型净能量聚变装置的Q。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.