A HYPERVELOCITY PELLET INJECTOR

TO ACHIEVE PRECISE SHAPING OF DENSITY PROFILES IN FUSION REACTORS WITH PELLET FUELING, INJECTION VELOCITIES OF UP TO 10 KM/SEC MAY BE REQUIRED FOR PELLETS OF A FEW MILLIGRAMS IN MASS. PRESENT PELLET INJECTORS BASED ON THE PNEUMATIC GUN OR CENTRIFUGE PRINCIPLES ARE CAPABLE OF ATTAINING VELOCITIES OF ABOUT 2 KM/SEC, AND THE BASIC CONCEPTS DO NOT APPEAR TO BE EASILY SCALABLE TO HIGHER PERFORMANCES. A NEW CONCEPT FOR PROJECTILE ACCELERATION BY ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPRESSION WAS PREVIOUSLY DEVELOPED. THE CONCEPT IS BASED ON WELL-ESTABLISHED PRINCIPLES AND TECHNOLOGIES AND IS PRESENTLY BEING DEVELOPED FOR POTENTIAL KINETIC ENERGY WEAPONS. IT IS SHOWN THAT BY APPLYING THIS CONCEPT TO THE ACCELERATION OF DEUTERIUM PELLETS OF A FEW MILLIGRAM MASS, VELOCITIES APPROACHING 10 KM/SEC CAN BE ATTAINED IN A DISTANCE OF 1 TO 2 M. THE COMPONENTS AND TECHNOLOGY REQUIRED TO ATTAIN THIS LEVEL OF PERFORMANCE ALSO ARE RELATIVELY MODEST. A PROGRAM IS PLANNED TO APPLY THIS PRINCIPLE TO THE DESIGN OF A FACILITY THAT CAN MEET THE PELLET INJECTOR REQUIREMENTS FOR REACTOR FUELING. THE DESIGN CAN BE MODULARIZED FOR IMPLEMENTATION IN STAGES FROM PROOF-OF-PRINCIPLE DEMONSTRATION TO FULL OPERATION ON A MAJOR FUSION PLASMA CONFINEMENT EXPERIMENT.