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LPP Fusion’s President and Chief Scientist Eric Lerner reported on June 21 new record ion energies of over 260 keV (equivalent to a temperature of over 2.8 billion degrees K) to 150 plasma scientists assembled in Prague, Czech Republic for the 27th International Symposium on Plasma Physics and Technology. The new results, obtained with the FF-1 plasma focus experimental device in Middlesex, NJ were a 50% advance over the previous record for a single shot, 170 keV, also achieved at FF-1 in 2011. Equally significantly, the mean ion energy for 10 shots at the same conditions also increased by 50% to 124 keV. Combined with other advances reported at the same conference these results mean that FF-1 now has achieved the ion energy needed to ignite hydrogen-boron fuel in an average shot, not just in the best shots.
Lerner reported that in the same 10 shots, the variability in fusion yield from shot to shot was only about 14%, a factor of four reduction over previous results with FF-1.
These new results were possible only with the glow-discharge preionization used in the May-June experiments. This preionization, caused by a tiny, several-microampere current flowing in advance of each shot, smoothes the path for the main current, making breakdowns more symmetric and reducing or eliminating the vaporization of the anode material. “We see evidence of the reduction of vaporization from the reduction in the oscillations of the current,” Lerner explained. “This indicates that less energy is being drawn from the circuit to vaporize and then to ionize tungsten atoms.”
