Plasma heating and fusion burns using compression clamping of superthermal ions

One mode of two-component fusion operation involves use of auxiliary energy input to maintain (clamp) the super-thermal ions at or near their injected energy. Then a maximum fusion rate can be achieved by keeping the injected-ion energy near the peak of the fusion cross section. The present study examines various time sequences for clamped operation of the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR). With the injectors presently envisioned for TFTR, sequential injection and clamping gives an energy multiplication (Q-value) of order of approximately 0.7. A Q-value over unity is possible, however, if the half-energy component of the injected beam is removed without reduction in input power, and if simultaneous injection and clamping is possible