Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

New concept for muon catalyzed fusion reactor

Conference · · AIP Conf. Proc.; (United States)
OSTI ID:6432957

A new concept for a muon catalyzed pure fusion reactor is considered. To our best knowledge this constitutes a first plausible configuration to make energy gain without resorting to fissile matter breeding by fusion neutrons, although a number of crucial physical and engineering questions as well as details have yet to be resolved. A bundle of DT ice ribbons (with a filling factor f) is immersed in the magnetic field. The overall magnetic field in the mirror configuration confines pions created by the injected high energy deuterium (or tritium) beam. The DT materials is long enough to be inertially confined along the axis of mirror. The muon catalyzed mesomolecule formation and nuclear fusion take place in the DT target, leaving ..cap alpha../sup + +/ and occasionally (..cap alpha mu..)/sup +/ (muon sticking). The stuck muons are stripped fast enough in the target, while they are accelerated by ion cyclotron resonance heating when they circulate in the vaccum (or dilute plasma). The ribbon is (eventually) surrounded and pressure-confined by this coronal plasma, whereas the corona is magnetically confined. The overall bundle of ribbons (a pellet) is inertially confined. This configuration may also be of use for stripping stuck muons via the plasma mechanism of Menshikov and Ponomarev.

Research Organization:
Institute for Fusion Studies and Department of Physics, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712
OSTI ID:
6432957
Report Number(s):
CONF-8805170-
Journal Information:
AIP Conf. Proc.; (United States), Journal Name: AIP Conf. Proc.; (United States) Vol. 181:1; ISSN APCPC
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English