ALPHA-PARTICLE DIAGNOSTICS BY ION CYCLOTRON EMISSION (ICE)

THE ALPHA PARTICLES IN A FUSION REACTOR ARE THE SOURCE OF FREE ENERGY WHICH SUSTAINS THE "BURNING" D-T PLASMA. THE ABILITY OF A MAGNETIC CONFINEMENT DEVICE TO CONTAIN THE ALPHA PARTICLES IN THE PLASMA DETERMINES CONDITIONS FOR IGNITION. MEASUREMENTS OF THE TIME HISTORY OF THE SPATIAL AND ENERGY DISTRIBUTIONS OF THE ALPHA PARTICLES IN THE PLASMA ARE REQUIRED FOR COMPARING THE THEORETICAL PREDICTIONS OF THE ALPHA PARTICLE BEHAVIOR WITH EXPERIMENTS IN TFTR AND OTHER FUTURE D-T DEVICES. THESE MEASUREMENTS THEN COULD "BENCHMARK" PREDICTIVE MODELS OF IGNITED FUSION PLASMAS. WE PROPOSE TO EMPLOY SPECTRAL ANALYSIS OF ION CYCLOTRON EMISSION, ICE, AS A DIAGNOSTIC MEANS OF ON-LINE MONITORING THE PROPERTIES OF THE ALPHA PARTICLES.