Fusion Message Board

In this space, visitors are invited to post any comments, questions, or skeptical observations about Philo T. Farnsworth's contributions to the field of Nuclear Fusion research.

Subject: Cylindrical or Axial flow IEC
Date: Jan 13, 11:39 am
Poster: Nathan K.

On Jan 13, 11:39 am, Nathan K. wrote:

To all, I found this abstract article on cylindrical or as Blair calls them an Axial flow IEC device on the net and it gives a pretty good description of what an Axial flow or cylindrical IEC wood be like.

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John DeMora, Robert Stubbers, Mike Williams, Yibin Gu, George H. Miley

A cylindrical inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) fusion device (C-device) is being developed at U of I as a portable neutron source for activation analysis.^1 The device consists of a cylindrical 56-inch long, 4.5-inch dia. glass vacuum chamber containing \sim0.5 mTorr of D_2 fill gas; a hollow 3.5-inch diameter cylindrical cathode; two 3.5-inch dia. cylindrical anodes; and two concave focusing cathode end pieces. In low current ranges (<30 mA), neutron yield scales linearly with the ion current. At higher currents, the neutron yield should scale as ion current squared (i^2) as beam-beam collisions between ions increase.^2 Pulsed operation takes advantage of the i^2 neutron scaling with high peak currents, reducing the waste heat rate at a fixed neutron yield and preventing over-heating. An exponential-decay RC pulser (0.5-A peak current, 20 to 80 ms width) and a square-wave pulser (30-A peak current, 3 \mus width) have been developed. Optimal electrode sizes and separation distances were determined by steady-state operation; then were modified for high-current pulsed operation.
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I think what we are talking about is a Pyrex glass cylinder with 3 rings that are like maybe 1.0 inch in width, 3.5 inches in diameter and are spaced apart. The center one would be the cathode and the two on the outside would be the anodes.

The ions would travel from the anode rings through the cathode ring and back again once they have reached the anode rings.

Now this has got to be easier to make than any stainless steel sphere device. I think I'm going to try to make one and see how it works.

You know if you think about it this device will be easier to meter than the spherical devices.

Nathan