Fusion Science and Technology - Nuclear Engineering Department

This specialty deals with current approaches
to the design of a fusion power plants. For both the magnetic and
the inertial confinement schemes, problems of particle confinement,
plasma heating, ICF chamber dynamics, fusion materials, fusion neutronics,
safety and environmental impacts are analyzed. Experimental facilities
for plasma research include a Spheromak plasma experiment, plasma-surface
interaction experiments, and ICF chamber liquid protection experiment. Graduate Fusion Engineering Curriculum. Morse, Peterson, Leung, Fowler(Emeritus), Thomassen

Principal Investigators: Morse, Fowler (Emeritus)

The spheromak is a very compact
magnetic configuration to confine hot plasmas in a fusion reactor,
but one at very early stages of development. Recent theoretical
work suggests that energy confinement in spheromaks is far better
than previously believed. Experiments on the SSPX spheromak at Livermore
are addressing this and other questions about spheromaks. Recent
studies indicate that the “nuclear island” cost for
a spheromak fusion reactor would be much less than that for the
tokamak concept that is the mainline research effort today.

Principal Investigator: Peterson

This research studies x-ray driven ablation, blast propagation and transient condensation for removing vapor generated in inertial confinement fusion target chambers. Another component of the project studies liquid jet phenomena in vacuum environments. The work focuses both on issues important to chamber dynamics in the National Ignition Facility, and to future inertial fusion energy power plants. Research support comes from the Department of Energy Office of Fusion Energy Science.

Principal Investigator: Morse

Overview The UCBNE department is home of the Berkeley Compact Toroidal Experiment (BCTX). Operated by Professor Ed Morse, the BCTX is a spheromak experiment with the unique capability of producing auxiliary-heated spheromaks. The machine has a lower hybrid drive system which can deliver up to 20 MW of RF power at 432 MHz to the plasma for a 100 us pulse length.

Given complete coupling of RF energy into the plasma, this represents
sufficient energy to heat the plasma electrons to 1 keV. Experiments
at such temperatures offer the opportunity to explore ideal MHD
pressure limits and energy confinement regimes not accessible in
other devices.

Installed diagnostics on this machine include Thomson scattering
for electron temperature, magnetic field B-dot loops, a laser interferometer
for density measurement, several spectrometers for impurity ion
spectroscopy, and an ion Doppler temperature measurement system.
Current experiments are focused on determining electron heat confinement
in spheromaks using the RF heating source as a heat pulse. To date,
electron temperatures up to 150 eV have been measured in BCTX.

• Diagram
• Lab Photo
• Experimental Studies of
  Compact Toroids (pdf file)

Principal Investigator: Peterson

Overview The principle goal of indirect-drive ICF research is to convert the energy of a driver (either laser or ion beam) into a uniform radiation field directed onto a fuel capsule in the center of a hohlraum. The hohlraum target must be designed in such a way as to achieve this energy conversion efficiently and uniformly. At Berkeley, students participate in the design of fusion targets with teams at the LBNL Accelerator and Fusion Research Division.

Principal Investigator: Morse

The accelerator provides a 5 mA beam of deuterons, which interact with the tritium on the rotating target to make fusion neutrons. These neutrons have an energy of 14 MeV and are produced roughly isotropically from the point of beam impact on the target. The available neutron yield from this source is between 1.0E12 and 6.0E12 neutrons per second.
The target is constructed so that material samples can be placed within one centimeter of the neutron source point. Fluxes up to 5.0E11/cm2 over a volume of several cubic centimeters are available.

Current studies using RTNS are materials tests for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) under construction at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, activation studies for radiological safety of fusion facilities including NIF, and measurements of nuclear cross sections and detector devices for neutrons at fusion energy. Operations using the RTNS machine are currently supported under contract with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

• Engineering Design and Experimental Applications (pdf file)

Principal Investigator: Verboncoeur

Investigation of effects of propagation of neutrals generated by impact of halo ions on wall surfaces, leading to formation of electrons and non beam ions which can disrupt beam propagation. Collaboration with the Virtual National Laboratory, supported by the Department of Energy.