Review of hydrogen pellet injection technology for plasma fueling applications
In the past several years, steady progress has been made worldwide in the development of high-speed hydrogen pellet injectors for fueling magnetically confined plasmas. Several fueling systems based on the conventional pneumatic and centrifuge acceleration concepts have been put into practice on a wide variety of toroidal plasma confinement devices. Long-pulse fueling has been demonstrated in the parameter range 0.8--1.3 km/s, for pellets up to 6 mm in diameter, and at delivery rates up to 40 Hz. Conventional systems have demonstrated the technology to speeds approaching 2 km/s, and several more exotic accelerator concepts are under development to meet the more demanding requirements of the next generation of reactor-grade plasmas. These include a gas gun that can operate in tritium, the two-stage light gas gun, electrothermal guns, electromagnetic rail guns, and an electron-beam-driven thruster. Although these devices are in various stages of development, velocities of 3.8 km/s have already been achieved with two-stage light gas guns, and the prospects for attaining 5 km/s in the near future appear good.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831
- OSTI ID:
- 6316999
- Journal Information:
- J. Vac. Sci. Technol., A; (United States), Vol. 7:3
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
PELLET INJECTION
REVIEWS
CONFINEMENT
ELECTRON DENSITY
ELECTRON TEMPERATURE
HYDROGEN
MAGNETIC FIELD CONFIGURATIONS
THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTIES
DOCUMENT TYPES
ELEMENTS
NONMETALS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
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