Exploratory studies of high-efficiency advanced-fuel fusion reactors. Annual report

This report describes the SAFFIRE concept for a D-3He pilot unit designed to demonstrate on a near-time scale, the feasibility of burning advanced fuels. SAFFIRE, based on the Field-Reversed Mirror concept, offers the high β necessary for attractive advanced-fuel burns. Further, it potentially includes many features such as small size and low capital cost that are essential for a pilot plant demonstration. In addition, preliminary studies show that the SAFFIRE concept could potentially lead to an attractive fusion economy via the D-3He satellite approach where small local power plants receive 3He from larger Semi-Catalyzed Deuterium generator plants. Preliminary studies of potential ways that advanced fuels can be burned in inertial confinement schemes are also described. The focus of this work has been on the A-FLINT pellet concept where the input energy requirement is reduced by igniting a small core of D-T fuel which then burn propagates into a deuterium region