Patent Number: 051620944
Section: description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION As shown in FIG. 1, the heat producing portion 10 of a fusion power plant is in the process of converting coolant liquid 12 to superheated steam 14 by action of the two heat exchangers 16. The heat input to the exchangers 16 is supplied by the kinetic energy of colliding fusion ions 18 as they are intercepted by the heat exchangers. The trajectory of the fusion ions 18 are shown as helixes caused by the interaction of the charge on the ions and the axial magnetic field as created by an electrical current through the conduction wires of the solenoid 20 shown in cross section. In addition, as shown in FIG. 1, the fusion ions 18 are shown to be emanating from a mid region 22 of the space within solenoid 20. The fusion reaction happening at 22 is caused by collisions of suitable ion pairs as initially injected into the mid region space by ion sources 24. Suitable non-ionized gas is caused by ion sources 24 to become ionized and with the created input positive ions then accelerated to high velocities and thus high energies by action of the negative potential accelerating rings 26. As a result of the electric charge of the ions, their mass, the electrostatic potential of the accelerating rings 26 with respect to the ion source 24 and the axial magnetic field strength as created by solenoid 20, the input ions are caused to converge on and then oscillate through the focus region 22 until fusion reactions are finally created by head on collisions between ions at a rate essentially equal to the input rate that new ion pairs are being added by sources 24. FIG. 2 provides a symbolic representation of the ion sources 24 and the accelerating rings 26 in addition to the ion trajectory envelope caused by the magnetic field created by solenoid 20 of FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 2, input ions are caused to pass through a magnetic focal region 22 resulting from the action of the magnetic field from solenoid 20. As the ions at the focal region 22 possess high kinetic energy as determined by the accelerating ring potential with respect to the ion sources, and, on the average, are of equal probability in terms of direction, ion pairs will eventually collide with fusion as the result. Ions experiencing near collisions, as would normally produce scattering of the colliding pairs, are returned to the collision sites after one half an oscillation by the action of the encompassing magnetic field from solenoid 20. FIG. 3 illustrates a second embodiment of the present invention that is designed to be used as a propulsion engine for a spacecraft. In this embodiment the magnetic field containment solenoid 20 is formed into a U-shaped configuration 28 allowing fusion particles 30 to escape from the magnetic field of the solenoid in a region where the magnetic containment field created by solenoid 20 is becoming progressively weaker with distance from the solenoid ends. As the escaping particles are leaving the solenoid 20 in essentially the same direction, a net resultant reaction thrust is directed against the solenoid magnetic field and thus against structure 32 supporting the solenoid 20. As with the configuration of FIG. 1, a fusion reaction is created at the mid region of the solenoid 20 by action of ion sources 24 and accelerating rings 26 creating a fusion region 22. This configuration of the present invention would be suited for generating propulsion thrust at very high specific impulse (the ratio of thrust to rate of fuel usage) for a spacecraft. FIG. 4 shows one embodiment of an ion source 24 for the present invention with the purpose of creating a highly concentrated source of positively charged ions 34 as they are formed upon leaving a very small diameter hole 36 as contained in a button of refractory material 38. Ion source 24 consists of an electrically insulative sleeve 40 surrounding an electrically conductive tube 42 that acts as a mounting base for the refractory button 38. As shown, the tube 42 is connected to the secondary of a transformer 44 that by action of a low voltage RF source at the transformer primary 46 causes a high voltage RF excitation to be supplied to tube 42 and thus creates a high intensity electric field to surround the refractory button 38. As unionized gas molecules 48 pass through the small orifice hole 36 contained within the refractory material 38, some ionization of the molecules will occur at the exit point 50. The action of the high intensity RF field in this region will result in the refractory material being bombarded by the ions present causing it to be heated to incandescent temperatures and thus aid in the ionization process by preheating the molecules 48 to ionization temperatures while still within orifice 36. The combination of molecular preheating, ion bombardment as the molecules 48 leave the orifice 36 at exit point 50 and the high intensity electric field at this point causes virtually 100% ionization of the molecules within a very small region of space as defined by the size of the orifice 36. Having a concentrated source of ionization allows a magnetic refocusing at region 22 that will also possess high ion density and thus is conductive for fusion reactions to occur. Positive ions 34 are accelerated by the negative potential ring 26. As free electrons are also created at region 50 during the ionization process, some "beam riding" electrons will be carried along with the accelerating ions 34 that will act as electrostatic shields between the ions and thus prevent them from spreading by the mutual repulsive forces acting between nuclei. FIG. 5 shows a second embodiment of the ion sources 24 and the accelerating ring arrangement 26 that allows the use of input ion species having different mass. By offsetting the position of the ion sources 24 from the center line axis 52 of the containment solenoid 20, ions of two different mass numbers (i.e., deuterium and tritium or deuterium and helium.sup.3) can be permitted to converge at the same point 22 while allowing different overall path lengths 54 as determined by the different mass numbers of the nuclei. Offsetting the ion sources 24 allows two mass number input ions to oscillate freely in space through focal region 22 without experiencing collisions with one of the other of ion sources 24. This is an important feature as the most desirable fusion reactions that either require the least amount of input energy or do not produce undesirable neutrons as a fusion product (i.e., deuterium and tritium or deuterium and helium.sup.3) have different mass numbers for the input ions.