Plasma Performance of the Central Cell of a Cat-D Tandem Mirror Reactor

A particle and power balance assessment of the central cell of a conceptual D-D tandem mirror reactor (TMR) is carried out using a two-dimensional (2-D) Fokker-Planck code and a zero-dimensional (0-D) simulation code. The two computational models produce excellent agreement except for the mean triton energy, the difference in which can be attributed to the fact that the 2-D code considers the long slowing-down time of the tritium. It is demonstrated that for an ion confining potential between 200 and 300 keV, a) the central cell of a catalyzed-deuterium (Cat-D) fueled TMR can achieve ignition in the temperature range of 40-60 keV, b) the alpha ash buildup must be strictly controlled to obtain an economical ratio of electrostatic confining potential to central-cell temperature ϕ/T, allowing the exhaust tritium to beta decay to helium-3 prior to reinjection results in roughly the same net electrical power output, and c) injecting extra tritium beyond that bred in the plasma allows a drop in the minimum ion confining potential required for ignition. It is shown that the ion confining potential is minimized when Tic, = 50 keV; this results in a plasma Q of 26. A quantitative comparison with a D-T reactor scenario is presented. It is shown that under ideal operating conditions, a conceptual Cat-D TMR has a 35-40 percent higher power conversion efficiency than a D-T device; this must be weighed against the higher temperature and plugging requirements of Cat-D.