Theoretical Modeling of Reactor Relevant Conditions for Plasma Jet Driven Magneto-Inertial Fusion

Technical Report · Thu Aug 07 04:00:00 EDT 2025

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/2575555· OSTI ID:2575555

Cassibry, Jason ^[1]; Chu, Feng ^[2]

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1. Univ. of Alabama, Huntsville, AL (United States)
2. Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

The Charger Advanced Power and Propulsion Laboratory (CAPP), a laboratory within the Propulsion Research Center (PRC) at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) is working with Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). to develop models and inform on promising paths for high gain magneto-inertial fusion (MIF) conditions. This report provides a framework for identifying promising conditions for achieving ignition in plasma-jet-driven magneto-inertial fusion (PJMIF)[1]. As proposed, for the first part of the contract, UAH proposes to develop a gain over unity set of stagnation conditions to provide a state of plasma conditions to achieve to set long terms goals for the PJMIF program. Specifically, UAH will model PJMIF stagnation conditions to include radiation, heat transfer, two temperature energy equations, fusion reactivity and nonlocal fusion product deposition, but no hydrodynamics for these purposes. These calculations will use a stationary plasma model to reduce simulation complexity—focusing on a DT target at 10 keV. Subsequent work will include a DD plasma layer acting as an afterburner. UAH will assume an initial magnetic field without any consideration of the topology, just assume a field strength, most likely scaled with consideration of the local hall parameter. This effort will inform the team on the tradeoff between mass, peak target field, etc and the achievable gain.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E)
• DOE Contract Number: 89233218CNA000001
• OSTI ID: 2575555
• Report Number(s): LA-UR--25-28086
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY