THE ORNL THERMONUCLEAR PROGRAM

Technical Report · Wed Jan 15 04:00:00 EST 1958

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/4260845· OSTI ID:4260845

The Controlled Thermonuclear Reactor Program at Onk Ridge National Laboratory is outlined. Trapping of a beam of 300-kev deuterons was achieved in the Direct Current Experimental Facility (DCX). Construction and installation of the very-high-vacuum internal system was completed. All parts of the internal system can be baked at 400 C, and a base pressure of 3 x 10/sup -8/ mm Hg was attained. A liquid-helium pump is ander construction to provide complete pumping for all gases, other than helium, and other types of pumps are being studied. The high-current carbon arc was shown to act as a strong ion pump. The DCX ion source is being redesigned for higher current and pulsed operation in order to facilitate analysis. Improvement of the DCX magnetic field configuration is planned. Development work is proceeding on a 2-amp, 600-kv accelerator tube and power supply to provide a very large input of molecular ions. Many diagnostic techniques are being developed to study the hot plasma in DCX and in future devices. DCX experiments are described, related to the design of a proposed new facility (ORION). This facility should be capable of producing a self-sustaining thermonuclear plasma. The machine, as now conceived, will be similar to DCX, but provision will be made to compress the trapped deuteron plasma by a step-function rise in the magnetic field. The final field will be strong enough to contain the charged products of thermonuclear reactions. Both molecularion injection and the injection of energetic neutral atoms will be utilized in this device. When built, ORION will be used to study the critical value of 6 wt.% Ru-U all for a selfsustaining reaction and the stability of a thermonuclear plasma under various conditons. Various methods of extracting power from the plasma will be investigated. The successful operation of ORION would lead to the construction of an intermediate-sized reactor with which the scaling problems associated with large powerproducing thermonuclear reactors would be studied. A description of a full-scale power reactor is outlined. Part II of this report describes a strong basic program under way at ORNL to support and augment the experimental work on large devices. The characteristics of high-energy arcs are under investigation. Several kinds of energetic-molecular-ion sources are being tested in addition to an energetic-molecular-ion sources are being tested in fundamental vacuum research is being carried out including continuing measurements on the sputtering rate of metals under energetic ion bombardment. Improvements are being made in diagnostic techniques, particularly in the use of probes and in spectrographic analysis. Metallurgical and radiation-damage problems are being studied. The theoretical group is studying fundamental problems associated with the formation and behavior of a thermonuclear plasma ignited by the injection method used at ORNL. (auth)

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., Tenn.
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-26
• NSA Number: NSA-13-013394
• OSTI ID: 4260845
• Report Number(s): ORNL-2457
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

ACCELERATORS-- CURRENTS-- ELECTRIC POTENTIAL-- INJECTION-- ION BEAMS-- MOLECULES-- PLANNING-- POWER-- THERMONUCLEAR DEVICES-- TUBES
ATOMS-- CONFINEMENT-- DEUTERONS-- INJECTION-- ION BEAMS-- MAGNETIC FIELDS-- MOLECULES-- OPERATION-- ORION-- PLANNING-- PLASMA-- POWER-- PRESSURE-- STABILITY-- THERMONUCLEAR DEVICES-- VARIATIONS
ATOMS-- ENERGY RANGE-- ION SOURCES-- MOLECULES-- PARTICLE SOURCES-- TESTING
CARBON-- ELECTRIC ARCS-- HEAT TREATMENTS-- HELIUM-- INSTRUMENTS-- IONS-- LIQUIDS-- PLANNING-- PRESSURE-- PUMPS-- TEMPERATURE-- THERMONUCLEAR DEVICES-- VACUUM-- VESSELS
CONFIGURATION-- MAGNETIC FIELDS-- MAGNETIC MIRRORS-- THERMONUCLEAR DEVICES
CONTROLLED THERMONUCLEAR PROCESSES