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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Phys.
Sec. Fusion Plasma Physics
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fphy.2024.1440040
This article is part of the Research Topic Proton Boron Nuclear Fusion: From Energy Production to Medical Applications View all 5 articles

On Scaling of Proton-Boron Fusion Power in a Nanosecond Vacuum Discharge

Provisionally accepted
Yuri K. Kurilenkov Yuri K. Kurilenkov 1,2*Stepan N. Andreev Stepan N. Andreev 3Alexander V. Oginov Alexander V. Oginov 2
  • 1 Joint Institute for High Temperatures (RAS), Moscow, Moscow Oblast, Russia
  • 2 Institute of Physics. PN Lebedev, the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), Moscow, Moscow Oblast, Russia
  • 3 Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Dolgoprudny, Moscow Oblast, Russia

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

    In this paper, we present the results of further PiC simulations in the full electromagnetic code of the processes leading to the proton-boron reactions in a single device for plasma confinement, based on miniature nanosecond vacuum discharge (NVD) in a cylindrical geometry. In particular, we present and discuss in more detail the α particle output for the real electrodes geometry used in the first aneutronic protonboron fusion experiments with NVD. It follows from them that the total yield of α particles was accumulated in the initial experiments due to only single head-on converging of protons and boron ions accelerated in a very narrow potential well to the discharge axis. Next, basing on the numbers of proton-boron reactions obtained by simulations for different values of the virtual cathode radius in the anode space, the scaling of the proton -boron fusion power by the size of the virtual cathode is presented and discussed. The formation of more voluminous and a longer potential well, with well-defined oscillations of protons and boron ions in it, should provide an increase in the number of the proton-boron reactions. At the same time, an increase in the volume along the radius can lead to some saturation of the proton-boron reaction output, meanwhile the lengthening of the potential well with fusing ions along the discharge axis provides some increase of α particles yield.

    Keywords: vacuum discharge, Virtual cathode, Potential well, proton-boron reaction, fusion power scaling

    Received: 28 May 2024; Accepted: 26 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Kurilenkov, Andreev and Oginov. 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: Yuri K. Kurilenkov, Joint Institute for High Temperatures (RAS), Moscow, Moscow Oblast, Russia

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.