A Fusion Power Plant without Plasma-Material Interactions
Author: S.A. Cohen
A steady-state fusion power plant is described which avoids the deleterious plasma-material interactions found in D-T fueled tokamaks. It is based on driven p-11B fusion in a high-beta closed-field device, the field-reversed configuration (FRC), anchored in a gas-dynamic trap (GDT). The plasma outflow on the open magnetic-field lines is cooled by radiation in the GDT, then channeled through a magnetic nozzle, promoting 3-body recombination in the expansion region. The resulting supersonic neutral exhaust stream flows through a turbine, generating electricity.