The 4th International Conference on Matter and Radiation at Extremes (ICMRE 2019)

501 / 2019-03-18 23:46:06

Proton-boron-11 fusion revisited

advanced fuel,HB11,compact fusion

Plenary track > Fundamental Physics at Extremes

We study the proton-boron-11 ($p$-${}^{11}\!$B) nuclear fusion for igniting and sustaining an idealized fusion reactor. Different electron and ion temperatures, direct energy conversion efficiencies, and relativistic corrections are considered in this analysis. The large radiation loss due to electron bremsstrahlung introduces a formidable challenge against harvesting net power in thermalized $p$-${}^{11}\!$B plasmas. We find that this condition can be realized if the electron temperature is suppressed with respect to the ion temperature. We show that, in order to satisfy the Lawson criteria, a minimum efficiency of direct energy conversion, an ion temperature to electron temperature ratio, and a large improvement to energy confinement times are required.