Session 7P - Plasma Applications and Plasma Technology.
POSTER session, Thursday morning, November 14
Exhibit Hall - Concourse Level, Adam's Mark
A cylindrical inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) fusion device (C-device) is being developed at U of I as a portable neutron source for activation analysis.^1 The device consists of a cylindrical 56-inch long, 4.5-inch dia. glass vacuum chamber containing \sim0.5 mTorr of D_2 fill gas; a hollow 3.5-inch diameter cylindrical cathode; two 3.5-inch dia. cylindrical anodes; and two concave focusing cathode end pieces. In low current ranges (<30 mA), neutron yield scales linearly with the ion current. At higher currents, the neutron yield should scale as ion current squared (i^2) as beam-beam collisions between ions increase.^2 Pulsed operation takes advantage of the i^2 neutron scaling with high peak currents, reducing the waste heat rate at a fixed neutron yield and preventing over-heating. An exponential-decay RC pulser (0.5-A peak current, 20 to 80 ms width) and a square-wave pulser (30-A peak current, 3 \mus width) have been developed. Optimal electrode sizes and separation distances were determined by steady-state operation; then were modified for high-current pulsed operation. Results to date will be presented. ^This work was supported through the INEL University Research Consortium, contract no. CC-S-622904-002-C, administered by LITCO under DOE Idaho Operations Office contract DE-AC07-94ID13223. ^1Y. Gu, et al., Fusion Technol., 26, 3 Part 2, 929-932 (1994). ^2Y. Gu, et al., ``Pulsed IEC Neutron Generator,'' 10th IEEE Int'l Pulsed Power Conf. (1995). In Press.