Simulation of plasma afterglow phase in an inertial fusion energy chamber

Abstract

A zero-dimensional model that describes the evolution of plasma and gas parameters during the afterglow phase of cyclic operation of an inertial fusion energy chamber is developed. The afterglow phase determines the conditions for next fuel-target injection and therefore its thorough analysis is very important for conceptual design of inertial fusion power plants. The model incorporates important effects of intrinsic impurity ion radiation on plasma cooling as well as of chamber opacity with respect to resonance radiation on plasma recombination in the working chamber. The decay times for the plasma and gas energy and, in particular, their dependence on initially stored energy, chamber size, and background gas concentration are analyzed. The heat power load onto the cryogenic fuel target due to residual plasma, gas, and radiation field is calculated. It is found that the higher the background gas density, the longer is the time into the afterglow phase necessary to reduce the heat flux on the target to an acceptable level. © 2004 American Institute of Physics.