Progress toward fusion with particle beams

Light ion beams offer the ideal means for fusion pellet ignition. The energy of light ion beams accelerated by readily obtainable, efficient, pulse power sources can be deposited in pellets without the enhanced deposition required of electron beams or the complex absorption and transport physics that attend laser light. The preheat of pellet fuel and pusher regions is minimal because the production of hot electrons and bremsstrahlung is small. The pellet designer therefore has far more latitude in finding an optimal design. In addition the ability to transport particle beams through gas in the reactor chamber affords an excellent means to protect the chamber walls from erosion due to the soft x-ray and ion burst of the pellet. Other uses for intense ion beams exist in the Fusion Community in terms of plasma heating or confinement, and applications to chemistry may also be possible.