A muon catalysed fusion-fission reactor

Absorption of one muon in matter and muon induced fusion of deuterium and tritium can induce about one hundred nuclear D-T fusion reactions in a liquid density medium during the muon lifetime (2.2x10-6s). This end result of nuclear fusion follows a chain of atomic and molecular processes. The 'energy cost' for the creation of a muon is estimated to be about 5 GeV. Therefore, if one muon catalyses about one hundred D-T fusions, the energy output is less than 2 GeV per muon, so that no energy gain seems to be possible from 'pure' fusion nuclear reactions. However, it seems possible to gain energy by combining the catalysed fusion with fission blankets. Two new ideas are presented which should improve the muon fusion reactor concept. The first idea is to combine the target, the converter of pions to muons and the synthesizer, making them one system. This is accomplished by injecting a tritium or deuterium beam of 1 GeV per nucleon into the D-T fuel contained in a magnetic mirror. The confined pions slow down and decay to muons; these are confined in the fuel, causing little muon loss. The second idea is to collect the beam passing through the target and to recirculate it, while directing the strongly interacting portion of the beam to an electronuclear blanket. Thus it is possible to reduce the necessary quantity of tritium by about two orders of magnitude and to improve the energy gain compared with previously suggested concepts. The present concepts are based mostly on readily available technologies and on known physical processes and data. (author). 3 refs, 2 figs, 2 tabs