Session GP1 - Poster Session IV.
POSTER session, Tuesday afternoon, October 30
Exhibit Hall B,
An inertial fusion energy reactor requires the mass production of targets. The process includes filling the targets with DT and re-distributing the DT at cryogenic temperatures into a uniform layer inside of the spherical target capsules. Proof-of-principle, mass production layering experiments were conducted at room temperature using capsules filled with a surrogate, neopentyl alcohol, for DT. The self-heating of\, DT by beta-decay of the tritium is simulated with infrared light. The self-heating produces a preferential sublimation-condensation effect from the thick (warmer) regions of DT or alcohol to the thin (colder) regions of DT or alcohol. This creates a layer of uniform thickness when capsules are placed in an environment that uniformly removes heat from the capsule surface. A fluidized bed, which can handle a vast number of targets at once, was investigated for producing the required thermal environment for capsule layering. Capsules were filled with neopentyl alcohol by diffusion and by injection through a needle.