A Novel Ion Beam Source for Electrostatic Confined Fusion Reactors

Inertial Electrostatic Confined (IEC) fusion is a potentially attractive scheme for compact neutron-lean fusion reactors suitable for marine propulsion and deep space travel. Recent studies have indicated that efficient IEC devices require pulsed ion sources. However, existing pulsed ion diode schemes (e.g. Magnetically Insulated Diode (MID)) are not optimized for IEC applications. We propose a novel MID scheme which utilizes a modified Back. Lighted Thyratron (BLT) switch, both as a repetitive switch and a repetitive ion source. The extractable electron beam current from a fully developed BLT discharge was simulated using a simple electron trajectory integrator. The model's results appear to be in good agreement with the measured electrons escape fractions. The electron beam's escape fraction appears to be much higher when using a newly proposed ring-BLT configuration. The detailed results and additional potential applications of the proposed BLT configurations are also included.