Alpha Particle Effects in Thermonuclear Fusion Devices

• Published in: Life At The Center Of The Energy Crisis: A Technologist's Search For A Black Swan pp. 51 - 55
• Main Author: George H Miley
• Format: Reference Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Singapore World Scientific Publishing Company 2013; WORLD SCIENTIFIC
• Subjects: ENERGY TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING; Nuclear structure physics
• ISBN: 9789814436489; 9814436488; 9789814436519; 9814436518; 981443650X; 9789814436502
• DOI: 10.1142/9789814436502_0007

Early on in my studies of fusion systems, I wanted to identify a key area to concentrate on, because a well-defined focus enables better progress and provides more visibility than do random studies. Some criteria I used were that the subject was not yet well explored, and that it should involve basic fusion plasma physics. Burning fusion plasma physics is fundamental to the successful operation of a fusion reactor and something that I had previous experience with. Thus I identified alpha particle effects in a fusion reactor as an issue for my students and me to attack. At that time most of the rest of the fusion community was devoted to improving plasma confinement in Tokamak experiments using non-fusing hydrogen plasmas, not on future reactor-grade plasmas. This approach was adopted because most of the community thought we were “20 years off from a fusion reactor” so improving plasma confinement was the issue receiving most study. This left the important area of alpha particle effects wide open for new work…