Nuclear Fusion 107 - Researchers Are Working On Reverse Field Configuration Designs For Nuclear Fusion - Part 5 of 6 Parts

Nuclear Fusion 107 - Researchers Are Working On Reverse Field Configuration Designs For Nuclear Fusion - Part 5 of 6 Parts

Part 5 of 6 Parts (Please read Part 1, 2, 3 and 4 first)
       In order to achieve fusion power generation through the proton-boron-11 fuel, TAE was challenged with developing an advanced design for their reactor. They chose to cap their reactor at both ends with electromagnetic cannons with their barrels pointing at each other. To start the process, each of the cannons fires a ring of plasma into a central chamber. The rings of plasma merge into a single, rapidly spinning FRC. Next, a beam of neutral atoms is fired into the center of the chamber from the side. This heats up the plasma, supplies it with more proton-boron-11 fuel and helps to stabilize the plasma by maintaining the spin rate.
       TAE demonstrated a prototype of their reactor design in 2012. This demonstration only involved hydrogen so there was no fusion. Michl Binderbauer is the CEO of TAE. He said, “We showed these beautiful experiments where, if you start with the standard FRC and you don't do anything, it dies. But if you start injecting particles, you slow down the decay and expand how long it lives.” He went on to say that TAE has demonstrated that this process can sustain the FRC for the five to ten milliseconds needed for the twenty-five megawatt beam to exhaust the energy that the researchers have stored for each shot.
       In an actual functioning fusion reactor, the power beam would be generated by the fusion reaction itself, so the beam and FRC would keep functioning as long as desired. TAE hopes to reach that milestone with a proton-boron-11 fuel mixture before the end of the 2020s. This machine will be about the size of four double-decker busses parked end to end. That may not seem so small, but it is tiny compared to the ITER.
     In Bellevue, Washington, there is another company exploring fusion reaction design based on the FRC approach. Helion Energy was founded by researchers from the University of Washington in Seattle in 2013. Helion officials are not currently discussing their plans publicly but they have been forthcoming about their approach on their website and in their publications.
     Helion’s fusion reactor will be a linear tube that uses twin plasma guns to form a stationary FRC in a chamber in the middle. Instead of trying to sustain the FRC as in the TAE reactor, they will compress it with a huge magnetic field until the plasma has been heated and compressed enough for fusion to take place. The burst of thermonuclear energy will then cause the ball of plasma to explode outward which will push against the magnetic field and generate energy. This cycle will repeat once a second, generating a steady average power output similar to the way an internal combustion engine functions.
      The Helion reactor burns a different fuel than the TAE reactor. Instead of using proton-boron-11 fuel, the Helion reactor will burn deuterium-helium-3. This isotope of helium is called a “helion” which is where the company got its name. The reaction requires a temperature of several hundred million degrees which is midway between the temperature requirements of deuterium-tritium and proton-boron-11 fuels. 
Please read Part 6 next