Bremsstrahlung Radiation
Bremsstrahlung is 'braking radiation' emitted as electrons scatter off ions — a dominant energy-loss channel Kronos budgets at 718 MW on the corrected relativistic basis.
- Meaning
- German for 'braking radiation'
- Cause
- Electrons decelerating in the field of ions
- Kronos value
- 718 MW at the Mode-D point (corrected relativistic basis)
- Design response
- Priced honestly at the near-thermal basis; the photonic DEC stage recovers radiation
Bremsstrahlung — German for "braking radiation" — is X-ray light emitted when fast electrons are deflected by the electric fields of ions. In a fusion plasma it is an unavoidable energy-loss channel that scales with electron temperature and with the square of ion charge, so it grows quickly in hot, high-density plasmas.
Kronos budgets bremsstrahlung explicitly at 718 MW at the frozen Mode-D point — on the corrected relativistic basis (second-order e–i plus e–e terms) adopted in the 24 July 2026 re-ratification — and it is part of why the Lawson analysis is done with radiation losses included. It is also why the hot-ion posture was attractive (a cooler electron channel radiates less); the full equilibration analysis retired that posture to a gated ceiling, so the Mode-D baseline prices the radiation honestly at Ti = Te = 48 keV instead.