Limiting energy gain in deuterium plasma at powerful injection heating

Abstract

The possibility of neutron production in deuterium plasma (with no external tritium breeding) is considered for the case of high ratio of fast particles. High amount of fast deuterons is sustained by a powerful injection of neutral beams. In this case, fusion reactivity is essentially higher that the reactivity in the Maxwellian plasma. The reactivity is calculated by taking into account non-equilibrium velocity distribution function of fast deuterons. Plasma power gain Q ∼ 0.5 can be achieved at electron temperature of approximately 100 keV and deuteron injection energy of approximately 2 MeV. To realize such a scheme for this type of fusion fuel, the plasma pressure should be approximately equal to the magnetic pressure.