Alpha-induced instabilities in tandem thermal barriers

A major premise in the operation of Tandem Mirror reactors is that the fusion reactions take place in the central cell only. The alpha particles generated by the Deuterium-Tritium (DT) fusions, along with other ions, will however pass from the central cell to the thermal barriers and return to the central cell as a result of reflection by the potential hills that exist by the plugs' side of these barriers. This streaming motion gives rise to electrostatic and electomagnetic instabilities which could detract from the barrier's function as a thermal insulator. The number density and streaming velocity of these passing particles are dictated by the electrostatic potential variation and the magnetic field structure in these regions. It is shown that, in the absence of alphas, barriers with deep potential depression are less susceptible to electrostatic instabilities while particularly vulnerable to unstable electromagnetic modes. In the presence of alphas, especially the fast alphas whose mean energy is significantly larger than the barrier potentials they see, (which is twice as high as that seen by the ions) both types of modes become unstable. (orig.)