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Z. Naturforsch. 69a, 589 – 596
(2014)
doi:10.5560/ZNA.2014-0058
The Ignition of Cylindrical Fusion Targets by Multi-Mega-Ampere GeV Proton Beams below the Alfvén Limit
Department of Physics, College of Science, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada 89557-0220, USA
Received October 3, 2013 / revised June 30, 2014 / published online October 8, 2014
Reprint requests to: F. W.; E-mail:
winterbe@unr.edu
It is shown that cylindrical deuterium targets can be ignited with multi-mega-ampere GeV proton beams below the Alfvén limit and a small amount of tritium. The proton beams can be generated by discharging a magnetically insulated gigavolt capacitor. Surrounding the thermonuclear micro-explosion with a thick layer of liquid hydrogen, heated to a ∼105 K plasma by the thermalization of the fusion reaction neutrons, most of the energy released can be converted into electric energy by a magnetohydrodynamic generator.
Key words: Inertial-Magnetic Confinement; Intense GeV Proton Beams.