Burner Heating Systems
The burner uses radio-frequency and neutral-beam heating to reach the high temperatures deuterium-helium-3 fusion demands.
Reaching a hard-to-burn fuel
Deuterium-helium-3 needs higher temperatures than deuterium-tritium to fuse at a useful rate, so the burner's heating systems must work hard. They raise the central-cell plasma to the required conditions and help establish the plasma potential that the tandem plugging depends on.
Heating methods
- Radio-frequency heating couples electromagnetic waves at particle resonances into the plasma, including electron-cyclotron heating tuned to the strong-field regions.
- Neutral-beam injection fires fast neutral atoms that penetrate and deposit energy in the plasma.
- Heating in the plug regions helps build the electrostatic potential that plugs the central cell.
Heating and plugging
In a tandem mirror, heating is not only about temperature. Selectively heating the plug plasma raises its density and potential, which strengthens the electrostatic barrier that confines the central cell. Heating is therefore part of the confinement scheme, not just a way to reach ignition-relevant temperatures. This coupling is specific to the mirror architecture.
In the model
Heating systems appear as the launchers and beam lines entering the central cell and plug regions. Selecting one shows where its power is deposited along the axis, which matters because central-cell heating and plug heating serve different purposes. The high-field regions are natural targets for electron-cyclotron heating because the resonance follows the field strength.
Relation to confinement
Because heating and plugging are linked, this system connects directly to confinement. See the confinement geometry and the plug throats the heating supports.