The CrossFire Fusion Reactor is a concept that uses steady-state magnetic fields to confine radially, and helicoidal moving magnetic forces more electrostatic fields to trap axially plasma of electrically charged ions, in an energy-efficient way to ignite fusion reactions, but allowing the charged byproducts to escape longitudinally to the outputs to be converted directly into electricity, producing safe, clean, dense, and virtually unlimited electric power with no pollution and no radioactive waste.
The helicoidal moving magnetic forces can be produced by out-of-phase electric currents flowing through a set of concentric helix-coils axially 60° rotated from each other, and also alternatively by a resonator feed by phased RF { [0° 90°]⊥[90° 180°] } orthogonally disposed quarter-wave(¼λ) spaced.
Nuclear fusion takes place when light atomic nuclei, having sufficient kinetic energy, collides with each other to combine, overcoming the electrostatic force repulsion, to form a heavier atomic nucleus releasing a tremendous amount of energy. For fusion reactions to take place, there is the need of having sufficient kinetic energy and confinement to achieve collisions at the required rate. Nuclear fusion reactions have an energy density many times greater than nuclear fission. Nuclear fission involving uranium-235, plutonium-239, and even the safer thorium-232, produce more radiation hazards and radioactive waste than a conventional neutronic nuclear fusion involving deuterium and tritium, and the conventional neutronic nuclear fusion, although relatively benign (no long-term radioactive waste problem), produces more neutrons than an aneutronic nuclear fusion involving helium-3, hydrogen-1 (boron-11, lithium-6, lithium-7, beryllium-9), which produce the non-radioactive waste helium-4. Both release millions of times more energy than chemical reactions. Nuclear fusion has high-power and high-energy density, cannot “blow up or melt down”, modest land usage, power production less intermittent, i.e. more constant and compact if compared to solar, wind and biomass.
Most of the mainstream fusion reactors, e.g. ITER and NIF, remain decades away from the practicality due to awesome energy required for barely reaching 5keV, and also usually are designed to fuse a mix of deuterium and tritium, which gives off 80% of its energy in the form of fast neutrons making the apparatus relatively radioactive which can be tolerated and managed (short-lived radioactivity). The energy of fast neutrons is collected by converting their thermal energy into electric energy, which is very inefficient (less than 30%). Moreover, most of the mainstream fusion reactors are big energy devours because they use magnetic compression and lasers instead electrostatic acceleration putting almost all of them very far from the breakeven point; finally, most of them work by repeated startups and shutdowns (pulsed mode) which cause enormous energy losses.
note: please, do not take technical subjects so seriously to your personal side. Regarding the other fusion approaches, that were conceived and/or has been improved by extraordinarily valiant and brilliant scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs, the critiques are just to help to contextualize the proposed concept. In this way, feel free to criticize severely the proposed concept, no personal attacks, be logical and rational, in order to keep a healthy argumentation.
The Pioneer Electrostatic Fusion Machines:
Farnsworth–Hirsch Fusor (US patent: 3258402, 3664920)[6] which utilizes electrostatic acceleration to reach great kinetic energy 170keV (2 billion °C) while Tokamaks are barely able to attain to 10 keV (100 million °C) due to use of inefficient methods like magnetic compression. However, it still has the unsolvable grid-loss problem which has prevented the Farnsworth–Hirsch Fusor from taking full advantage of the electrostatic acceleration.[10][11][12][16]
Bussard Polywell (US patent: 4826646)[7] is similar to the Fusor except that has incorporated a magnetic confinement system similar to the Magnetic Well for Plasma Confinement (US patent: 4007392)[8][9] also similar to the Limpaecher Multicusp Containment (US patent: 4233537) and other Plasma devices (US patent: 4584160). The Polywell method can be characterized shortly by the following steps: generating magnetic cusps, injecting electrons through the magnetic cusps to create a negative potential (virtual cathode), injecting positively charged particles toward the negative potential, and maintaining the number of electrons greater than the number of positively charged particles. Apparently, its essential scheme of virtual cathode, "wiffleball" magnetic compression, and recirculation of electrons, also has prevented the Polywell from taking full advantage of the electrostatic acceleration.[17]
Short differentiation and characterization:
Farnsworth–Hirsch Fusor: real cathode (inner grid), electrostatic containment;
Bussard Polywell: virtual cathode, recirculation of electrons, "wiffleball", electrodynamic containment;
CrossFire Fusion Reactor: real cathode (magnets), anode (armature), magnetic and electrostatic confinement (penning trap) with escape mechanism;
Heavy Ion Fusion: relies essentially on linear particle accelerators (LINAC) (US patent: 2770755, 2867748, 6888326) which are mainly single-phase based instead of multiphase;
FRC colliding beam fusion reactors (US patent: 4390495, 6611106, 6850011, 7439678, 20060198483): magnetic compression instead of electrostatic acceleration.
Contextualizing, the FRC (field-reversed configuration) fusion reactors are essentially pulsed plasmoid colliders, i.e. pulsed single-phase instead of multiphase. In some FRC versions (US application: 20050249324, 20120031070), Rotating Magnetic Field (RMF), sometimes referred as Rotamak, is employed to form and sustain the plasmoid. The "rotating" radial magnetic field is generated by an orthogonal set of coils excited by radio frequency power, phased in quadrature. Therefore, it produces only rotating, but not both moving and rotating magnetic fields, and not helicoidal moving fields.
Up to this time, there was no nuclear fusion reactor designed for using multiphase alternating electric currents to produce radially and axially moving magnetic fields resulting in helicoidal moving force to both accelerate and confine plasma of charged particles.
The CrossFire Fusion Reactor concept was designed to take full advantage of the electrostatic acceleration, and now it was upgraded with multiphase electrical currents flowing through concentric coils for producing radially and axially moving magnetic fields to both accelerate and confine the plasma in order to make it much more energy-efficient to harness fusion energy for producing directly an enormous quantity of cost-effective electrical power from clean, safe, and environmentally friendly aneutronic fuels.
For a better initial understanding, firstly will be described the basic embodiment comprised by two poles/outputs and then will be further described an advanced embodiment comprised by fourteen poles/outputs:
III. Basic Embodiment
The two-pole embodiment is conceptually almost equal to the fourteen-pole embodiment, except that it has two outputs instead of fourteen in order to make the concept easier to be understood, mainly regarding the wise use of electrostatic acceleration that is utilized advantageously to reduce drastically the energy requirements to achieve a net gain from fusion reactions(more energy out than in), also except that the fourteen-pole embodiment can more specifically work just with multiphase accelerators without electrostatic acceleration.
The basic apparatus is comprised by an armature, a superconducting electromagnet centered inside the armature, an electrostatic generator (Van de Graaff or Pelletron) between the armature and the electromagnet, also an electrically-insulated motor-generator shaft to power the electromagnet; a heat exchange system connected to the electromagnet via electrically-insulated heat exchanger pipes for cooling down the superconducting electromagnets and also to recycle heat energy into electric power; two sets of ion sources and mulphase accelerators at each distal extremity of the armature, a set of quadrupole magnets connecting the electromagnet to the distal ends of the armature. The Quadrupoles Magnets are arranged in quadrature (rotated 90° from each other and spaced-apart by electrical insulators(boron nitride)) to cause strong focusing to make the beams more convergent and denser while the beams move through the magnetic cusps of the quadrupoles toward the reaction chamber. More a vacuum pump connected via insulated pipes to the bore of the electromagnet; an optical fiber (high electrical insulation and immunity to EM interference) to control and/or monitor the superconducting electromagnet; and an optional fusion fuel recycler in order to withdraw any unburned fuel from the fusion byproducts. The space between armature and magnets can be either empty vacuum or filled with insulating gas(N2, CO2, SF6). The electromagnet bore can be optionally coated with an alternate layer of tungsten and boron carbide(W/B4C) to act as an X-ray mirror[18][19][20]. And externally connected to the distal extremities: a set of electron guns, energy converters, and multistage ion collectors.
The multiphase accelerator consists of six concentric helix-coils, axially rotated 60° from each other and feed by six phases [0° 60° 120° 180° 240° 300°], for producing moving magnetic fields in both radial and axial directions resulting in helicoidal moving forces for both accelerating and confining radially and unidirectionally plasma of charged particles. It is to be shorter with much more torque than Linacs, and the speed of the resulting moving force can be calculated and adjusted for maximum power transfer.
The Multiphase Coils can be enclosed with Periodic Permanent Magnet(PPM) (NS SN NS SN NS SN)[31] in order to strengthen the radial containment.
The multiphase accelerator also can be alternatively implemented with a resonator(phased RF { [0° 90°]⊥[90° 180°] } orthogonally disposed quarter-wave(¼λ) spaced) instead of concentric helix-coils in order to deal with the "skin effect" without "litz wire" for similarly producing moving electromagnetic forces in both radial and axial directions resulting in helicoidal moving forces for both accelerating and confining radially and unidirectionally the plasma.
The plasma can be either positively or negatively charged; in case of positively charged then the electromagnet must be at negative potential, otherwise at positive potential.
Thus, the electrical setup can be either:
[armature(+) electromagnet(-) ions(+)]
[armature(-) electromagnet(+) ions(-)]
There is no preference regarding the electrical setups above, although positive ions maybe produce less bremsstrahlung radiation due to lack of electrons, and negative ions perhaps promote/catalyze more electron capture due to excess of electrons. Anyway in both cases, for higher-energy production, the charge-to-mass ratio should be calculated and pondered to be as low as possible keeping the plasma in a quasi-neutral state which requires higher electrical voltages and stronger magnetic fields, that is still feasible and affordable with nowadays superconducting technologies.
The static magnetic and electric fields form a kind of "Penning Trap" able to confine the charged ion plasma (ions are confined radially by the magnetic fields and trapped longitudinally by the electric fields). With help of a mass flow controller and ammeter, the charge-to-mass ratio can be precisely dosed keeping the plasma in a quasi-neutral state in accordance to calculations.
If just one the set of ions sources ionize fusion fuel with pre-defined charge-to-mass ratio, then the electrically charged plasma pellet is accelerated by the helicoidal moving magnetic fields and naturally attracted by electric fields exchanging its potential energy into kinetic energy and vice-versa. The acceleration and deceleration cause some small EM losses that will end as waste heat, nevertheless, the kinetic energy is enough for fusion to take place. The electric fields act as electrostatic lenses narrowing the charged beams as they approach to the distal ends, and the magnetic fields act as magnetic lenses tightening/constricting as they move back toward the chamber interior, which makes the plasma radially ever denser; the focusing can be even stronger with addition of electrically-insulated and spaced-apart quadrupole magnets rotated 90° from each other.
The magnetic fields prevent the plasma pellets from touching on the inner walls of the electromagnet. Then, there is no electric current between the plasma and the electrostatic generator P=V×I≈0, there is just electrostatic induction, insignificant power consumption to keep ideal conditions for the fusion to occur efficiently.
If the two set of ions sources ionize fusion fuel with pre-defined charge-to-mass ratio. The ionized fusion fuel (plasma pellets) are accelerated by the helicoidal moving forces and naturally attracted by the electromagnet(which is at opposite electrical potential) reaching the bore with great kinetic energy(600keV) enough for fusion reactions to take place. The two plasma pellets collide (micrograms/second with quintillions of atoms) with high probability of occurring fusion reactions liberating an enormous quantity of energy in form of charged particles causing some chain reactions and impelling the charged pellet(containing both burned and unburned fuels) toward to the outputs passing through the Energy Converters, transferring energy to the system while forcing electric/magnetic fields for landing smoothly on the multistage collectors to be finally neutralized, and after that, the byproducts can be recycled in order to separate burned and unburned fuels. The electron guns are to extract electrons from a positive terminal of a capacitor, and these electrons are to be impelled by the fusion byproducts against electric fields toward the negative terminal (connected to the multistage ion collectors) increasing the stored energy (E=½CV²); in other words, the electric current of the electron guns versus the gained voltage is the electric power (P=V×I); also the alternating fields produced by the Energy Converters are amplified by the bunch of electrons, afterwards rectified to be dispatched to a battery bank.
Internally, the electromagnet bore is in electrostatic equilibrium, just the magnetic fields prevent the plasma from touching on the inner walls, hence after the charged plasma pellets have got full kinetic energy due to the electrostatic acceleration, the electromagnet bore act as a drift-tube. Theoretically, the more electrically charged ions tend to surround the plasma surface enclosing the neutral atoms inside the pellet. When the two plasma pellets are approximating toward each other, the charged ions tend to migrate toward the rear-end letting the neutral atoms to collide frontally making the fusion to occur more easily due to either electron capture (followed by beta decay) or proton-electron pairs temporally forming virtual neutrons, helping to overcome the Coulomb barrier between the nuclei. Anyway, the electrostatic acceleration is able to reach 600keV that is enough to fuse atoms[5] with or without the electron capture and the temporary virtual neutron theories. With the electrically-insulated and spaced-apart quadrupole magnets (rotated 90° from each other), the focusing can be even stronger making the plasma much denser radially. Density, confinement and kinetic energy, the basic conditions for the fusion to take place [23], and low power consumption for the net gain.
The multiphase coils are more reactive than just resistive, because moving magnetic fields exert forces on moving charges F=q(v × B) and vice-versa. Just like an AC motor[28] that can behave as AC generator and vice-versa. F=i(L × B) ε=(Bℓv sinθ)
The Energy Converter also uses multiphase coils but with purpose of decelerating for converting kinetic energy into electric power.
The speed of moving forces is calculated to be very slow and toward the multistage collectors. Wherein the fast fusion byproducts boost the slow moving magnetic fields produced by the multiphase coils, thereby electrodynamically transferring energy to be effectively harvested by diode bridge rectifiers of the system.
Electromagnets in steady-state mode instead of pulsed mode.
Electrostatic acceleration instead of magnetic compression, wisdom instead of brute force, which leads to a more efficient energy usage to surpass the breakeven point.
The superconducting electromagnets are to consume just few kilowatts, and the magnetic fields can withstand very high-temperature ion plasma (r=mv/qB)[25]
The electrostatic acceleration, with a correct setup, can reach great kinetic energy (600keV ≈7 billion °C) enough to fuse hydrogen-boron, lithium-6/7, beryllium-9, helium-3, with a fair power consumption (few kilowatts) that can be easily proven by simple and consistent calculations.
The energy of magnetic and electric fields is to play a role of induction, similarly to energy gravitational of the Sun that is not consumed after all; "energy cannot be created or destroyed", it is just released from induced fusion reactions.
note: electric/magnetic forces are much stronger (1036undecillion) than gravitational.[22] F=ke(q1q2)/r² F=G(m1m2)/r² electron mass=0.00091E-27 kg
Even though the direct energy conversion is highly efficient, there will always be some waste heat coming from the electromagnetic radiation, mostly in X-ray range (bremsstrahlung) that is shielded by the tungsten layers. The waste heat can be recycled into electricity using conventional steam turbines or even better using the Multiphase Thermoelectric Converter. The Multiphase Thermoelectric Converter can harvest most of the waste heat from the Aneutronic Fusion Reactor, doubling (or even tripling) the overall efficiency of thermal-to-electric conversion in order to reduce drastically the thermal waste. Internally, it operates by radially forcing the coolant to push axially the electrical charges against electric/magnetic fields.
Aneutronic Fusion is clean and safe, only a minimum of radiation shielding is required. Most of the energy produced by aneutronic fusion is in the form of charged particles instead of neutrons, which can be converted directly into electricity by making them work against electric/magnetic fields that can potentially exceed 90% efficiency.[13]
E=½mv² → v=((E/m)*2)0.5→ v= (69.2393E+12 * 2)0.5→ v=11.7677E+6 m/s
with a superconducting electromagnet 30cm bore (15cm of internal radius)
r=mv/qB → B= (v/r)/(q/m) →
B=(11.7677E+6/0.15)/ 47.86127E+6→ B=1.64 T→ ideal ≈ 4 Teslas
Fuel consumption to produce 200 megawatts (mass flow controller and ammeter):
200MW = 200E+6 J/s → 200E+6/( (8.68MeV*1.60218E-19)/(20.0853E-27)) =
2.88853E-6 kg/s ≈ 2.89 milligram/second (2.88853E-6 /2 = 1.44426E-6)
Multiphase accelerator: frequency and reactive power for 150 keV:
E=½mv² → (150keV * 1.60218E-19)=½( 20.0853E-27)v² → v=1.54695E+6 m/s
1 m Length: vL=Lf → 1.54695E+6=1*f → f = 1.54695E+6 Hz ≈ 1.55 MHz
((150keV * 1.60218E-19)/( 20.0853E-27))*(2.88853E-6 /2) = 1.72811E+6 J/s
electrical current for 900VAC : 1.72811E+6/900 =1.9201E+3 A → IAC ≈ 2 kA
A Van de Graaff ( or Pelletron) generator 20MV(20E+6) to accelerate ions at 150keV.
E = qV → (E/m)= (q/m)V → (q/m)=(E/m)/V →
(q/m)=( (150keV * 1.60218E-19)/(20.0853E-27))/20E+6=
59.8266E+3 C/kg ≈ 59.8 µC/µg microcoulomb/microgram (charge-to-mass ratio)
Ion source current: 2.88853E-6 kg/s * 59.8266E+3 C/kg = 0.1728 C/s ≈ 0.2 Amperes
2.88853E-6 / ((20.0853E-27) = 144E+18 reactants/second (144 quintillions) which is a very high probability of having fusion reactions as well unburned fuels to be further recycled.
The multiphase accelerators are to induce 150keV each one, the electrostatic acceleration is to induce 150keV at each side, totalizing 600keV.
Temperature: 600keV *(11604.505 K -273.15) = 6.79881 billion °C ≈7 billions °C
As previously said the magnetic fields can withstand very high-temperature ion plasma preventing the hot plasma from touching on the inner walls of the reactor’s core.
With superconducting electromagnet 4 Teslas 30cm bore, multiphase accelerators, electrostatic generator of 20MV, it is possible to confine and fuse reactants (p-B11) at 600keV and radially confine the charged byproducts (4He) at relatively low energy consumption.
Aneutronic Fusion - clean and safe, harder to do, but not so difficult after all.
V. Advanced Embodiment
A Paradigm Shift from electrostatic to multiphase acceleration.
The advanced embodiment is conceptually similar to the two-pole embodiment, except that it has fourteen accelerators instead of two, which gives it a quasi-isotropic confinement and injection that make the concept more powerful without the need of electrostatic acceleration.
Following the calculations, the multiphase accelerator alone is energetic enough to achieve fusion ignition. Thus without the electrostatic acceleration, the charge-to-mass ratio can be zero, neutral plasma, no ionic saturation, electrons and atomic nuclei much closer (p-e-p) for substantially decreasing proton-proton repulsion, consequently much higher fusion rate and energy production. In few micrograms of fusion fuel there are trillions and trillions of atomic nuclei, and also free electrons that can decrease the Coulomb repulsion, then fusion reactions are far more likely to take place.
The advanced embodiment is comprised by a set of fourteen energy converters and multiphase accelerators disposed at faces of a truncated octahedron.
The truncated octahedron has eight magnets with bore placed at the hexagonal faces [NSNS][SNSN] to form quadrupole fields in the square faces where each pair of opposite-sided quadrupole are in quadrature, i.e. rotated 90° from each other, creating a reaction chamber with fourteen (six + eight) openings for the multiphase accelerators for making plasma collisions isotropically denser for a higher fusion rate. In quasi-isotropic collisions, the plasma beams tend to repel each other convergently toward the center of the reaction chamber thereby increasing the probability of fusion reactions.
The plasma is prevented from touching on the inner walls of the reaction chamber by the magnetic mirror effect(tendency for charged particles to bounce back from a high field region), and the plasma is accelerated and confined isotropically by the moving forces produced by the multiphase accelerators.
The CrossFire Fusion Reactor Concept does not need enormous amounts of power, which can make nuclear fusion relatively more energy and cost efficient due to the wise use of multiphase and electrostatic acceleration instead of energy devourers like magnetic compression and lasers putting it much closer to the practicality than any other mainstream fusion reactor in a stable, reliable, predictable and controllable manner for large-scale energy production with no pollution and no radioactive waste, contributing for a pollution-free Earth.
Virtually, it is the most dense and environmentally friendly energy source. It can replace more than 10 billion tons/year of carbon dioxide (CO2) by only 10000 tons/year of non-radioactive, inert, safe and light helium-4 gas, which can ascend above the ozone layer and maybe escape to the outer space and be swept by the solar wind.
The electricity produced by fusion power can be used for electrolysis of water to obtain hydrogen:[29]
H2O + (286kJ/mole) → H2 + ½O2
This hydrogen can be combined with atmospheric carbon dioxide(CO2) to produce methanol(CH3OH):[30]
CO2 + 3H2→ CH3OH + H2O
This process can reduce CO2 concentration and increase oxygen in the atmosphere, producing hydrogen for fuel cells and methanol for vehicles; methanol is relatively clean compared to gasoline or diesel which can substantially reduce the worldwide pollution.
Boron-11 is relatively plentiful on Earth's crust, (66 TJ/kg ≈18GWh/kg) no more than 0.1% of neutrons.
Helium-3 is abundant on the Moon's regolith[14][15], (205 TJ/kg ≈57GWh/kg) virtually neutron-free.
Hereafter, the Phase-shift Plasma Turbine powered by the aneutronic fusion reactor, fueled with p-B11, can provide a powerful and safe propulsion means to start a seek for helium-3 in our solar system.