Session RP1 - Poster Session VIII.
POSTER session, Thursday afternoon, October 30
Fran Hill Southeast Exhibit Hall, ACC
Proton Collimation involves the conversion of an isotropic source of highly energetic protons from a source, such as an inertial electrostatic confinement fusion reactor, and forcing the particles into a highly focused channel where they can be utilized in a direct energy converter as a possible spacecraft power source or possibly used as a high-Isp, low-thrust particle rocket. These experiments are to verify the proton collimator effect, its reciprocal process, and to provide an evaluated database for use in the design of a proton collimator for an IEC fusion reactor. A low energy electron beam is used to simulate an energetic fusion proton beam in the current experiments. Sensitivity experiments will provide the database needed for constructing an optimized collimator. In particular, the effect of collimator operation to source asymmetry will be tested using the adjustable-position source feedthrough. In the process of completing the collimator construction and testing, several minor modifications, such as filament structural design, have been made. Testing of device settings and collimator principles is underway and initial results will be presented.