GB841792A - Thermonuclear reactor - Google Patents

Abstract

841,792. Nuclear fission reactors. UNITED STATES ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION. June 6, 1958 [June 26, 1957], No. 18103/58. Class 39(4). A thermonuclear reactor comprises means for creating a plasma and focusing it into a high density disc shape having elongated azimuthal ion paths, and means for compressing the plasma disc and producing turbulence to increase ion collisions and raise the temperature. The reactor shown in Fig. 2 comprises top and bottom walls 31, 32 provided with insulating liners 38, 39 and joined to a cylindrical outer wall 33, the walls 31, 32 being contiguous to magnetic pole pieces 12, 13. The reaction chamber is bounded by a cylindrical wall 37 sealed in a gas-tight manner to the liners 38, 39 and is provided with a central electrode 42 which also serves as an inlet for gas via a passage 47 in wall 31 and an exhaust for gas via passage 44 in wall 32. The cylindrical wall 37 of the reaction chamber is connected to the inner conductors 52 of a plurality of coaxial cables, the outer conductors of which are connected to the wall 33 and thus to the central electrode 42. In operation the reaction chamber is evacuated and then filled with gas at a desired pressure, and electrical pulses are applied across the chamber by means of the coaxial cables. The pulses produce radial discharges and form a self-pinched disc-shaped plasma. The magnetic field from the poles 12, 13 causes the plasma trajectory to be circular and causes some turbulence in the plasma ; the plasma is partly stabilised by pulse return current passing through the walls 31, 32. The walls 31, 32 may be provided with a non- magnetic section so that the plasma expands in this part and contracts subsequently.