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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Phys.
Sec. Fusion Plasma Physics
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fphy.2024.1405435
This article is part of the Research Topic Proton Boron Nuclear Fusion: From Energy Production to Medical Applications View all articles

On the ignition of H11 B fusion fuel

Provisionally accepted
  • 1 HB11 Energy Holdings Pty Ltd, Freshwater, Australia
  • 2 School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications, Faculty of Engineering, University of New South Wales, Kensington, Australia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    We have revisited recent results on the ideal ignition of H 11 B fuel, in the light of the latest available reactivity, an alternative self-consistent calculation of the electron temperature, an increased extent of the suprathermal effects and the impact of plasma density. At high density, we find that the ideal ignition temperature is appreciably relaxed (e.g. 𝑇 𝑖 ≃ 150 keV for 𝑛 𝑖 ∼ 10 26 cm -3 and an optimal 11 B/H concentration 𝜀 = 0.15) and burn becomes substantial. We have then investigated central hotspot ignition in both isobaric and isochoric inertial confinement configurations. Although implosiondriven ignition appears to be unfeasible, the isochoric self-heating conditions foster favourable preliminary conclusions on the utilization of proton fast ignition. In the isochoric case, we find a broad minimum in the ignition energy at 𝜌𝑅 ≃ 8.5 g/cm 2 and 220 ≲ 𝑇 𝑖 ≲ 340 keV (80 ≲ 𝑇 𝑒 ≲ 95 keV), for 𝜀 = 0.15.

    Keywords: Proton-boron fusion, inertial confinement fusion, ideal ignition, hot-spot ignition, Proton fast ignition, Laser boron fusion, Aneutronic fusion

    Received: 22 Mar 2024; Accepted: 24 Jun 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Ghorbanpour and Belloni. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Fabio Belloni, School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications, Faculty of Engineering, University of New South Wales, Kensington, Australia

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