Kinetic simulations of a deuterium-tritium Z pinch with >10{sup 16} neutron yield
- Voss Scientific, LLC, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87108 (United States)
- Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185-1196 (United States)
Fully kinetic, collisional, and electromagnetic simulations of the time evolution of an imploding and burning Z pinch plasma have been performed. Using the implicit particle-in-cell (PIC) code, multidimensional (1D and 3D) simulations of deuterium and deuterium-tritium Z pinches provide insight into the mechanisms of neutron production. The PIC code allows non-Maxwellian particle distributions, simulates finite mean-free-path effects, performs self-consistent calculations of anomalous resistivity, and permits charge separation. At low pinch current, neutron production is dominated by high energy ions driven by instabilities. The instabilities produce a power-law ion-energy distribution function in the distribution tail. At higher currents with deuterium-tritium fuel, the vast majority of the neutrons is thermonuclear in origin and neutron yield follows an I{sup 4} neutron yield scaling with current. High-current, multidimension simulations (up to 40 MA with > 10{sup 16} neutron yield) suggest that the fraction of thermonuclear neutrons increases with current and the strong dependence of neutron yield with current will continue at still higher currents. Scenarios for fusion breakeven and possible ignition in the 40-80 MA regime are discussed.
- OSTI ID:
- 21537888
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 18, Issue 5; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3562536; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 1070-664X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
DEUTERIUM
ELECTRIC CURRENTS
LONGITUDINAL PINCH
NEUTRONS
NUCLEAR REACTION YIELD
PLASMA INSTABILITY
PLASMA SIMULATION
TRITIUM
BARYONS
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
CURRENTS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
FERMIONS
HADRONS
HYDROGEN ISOTOPES
INSTABILITY
ISOTOPES
LIGHT NUCLEI
NUCLEI
NUCLEONS
ODD-EVEN NUCLEI
ODD-ODD NUCLEI
PINCH EFFECT
RADIOISOTOPES
SIMULATION
STABLE ISOTOPES
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
YIELDS