Effects of nuclear elastic scattering and modifications of ion-electron equilibration power on advanced-fuel burns

The effects of Nuclear Elastic Scattering (NES) of fusion products and modifications of the ion-electron equilibration power on D-T and D-based advanced-fuel fusion plasmas are presented here. The processes causing the modifications to the equilibration power included here are (1) depletion of low-energy electrons by Coulomb collisions with the ions, and (2) magnetic field effects on the energy transfer between the ions and the electrons. Both NES and the equilibration modifications affect the flow of power to the plasma ions, which is an important factor in the analysis of advanced-fuels. It is found that the most important effect of NES is to increase the percentage of fusion product energy deposited to the ions by up to 30%, which allows larger ion-electron temperature separations (T/sub i/T/sub e/) for which ignition can occur. That is, the increase in the flow of power to the ions with NES included can offset increases in the flow of power from the ions to the electrons, and thus maintain a net positive flow of power to the ions for lower T/sub i//T/sub e/ ratios compared to the case with no NES. It was also determined that the dominant modification to the equilibration power is due to the magnetic field effects. These effects cause an increase in the equilibration power (up to 20%) and tend to decrease the allowable T/sub i//T/sub e/ for ignition