Direct Converter Design for the Fusion Power Demonstration

Charged particles escaping from the central cell are trapped on collectors in the end cell of a tandem mirror machine. Part of the energy is removed directly as electrical energy - direct conversion; the remainder is converted into heat on the collector plates and is removed by the collector coolant. To keep cost to a minimum, materials were used that are easy to fabricate and require that coolant temperatures be kept low; therefore, no useful heat was made available from the direct converter. Included are the results of studies of plasma shaping for the direct converter, and the effects of sputtering.