The investigation of inertial fusion burning requirements of deuterium-helium3 in degenerate plasma

Abstract

Conditions for self-sustained burning of deuterium-helium3 as an advanced fuel in a degenerate regime have been investigated by the four temperature theory. The four temperature theory can describe the radiation field more accurately than the three temperature model. According to the four temperature theory, the photon distribution undergoes a transition from an optically thick to optically thin regime at a certain cut-off energy. The main goal of this research is to determine the critical burn-up parameter for deuterium-helium3 fuel in the degenerate regime in which the ion-electron energy exchange and the bremsstrahlung loss are smaller than those of the classic plasma. To prevent high tritium breeding via deuterium-deuterium and deuterium-tritium reactions, the utilization of equimolar deuterium-helium3 fuel is avoided.