Brem Losses = Gains?

[KitemanSA]

Greetings from a Newbie;
I hope this hasn't been discussed to death. I tried looking for the topic but either I missed it or it isn't there.

Folks keep talking about "brem" losses. But isn't it just another form of energy produced by the system as a whole; one that might, with some thought, be captured and returned to the system?

I guess the question is whether anyone knows of a means analogous to photovoltaics to capture some of the "brem" radiation?

[TallDave]

The problem with brem is it reduces the energy of the ions so they're less likely to fuse. There's no way to get the energy back into them.

Brem isn't "produced" energy, it's wasted input energy. Only fusion produces energy. Brem hinders fusion.

The energy would eventually be recovered thermally, but at very low efficiency.

[KitemanSA]

TallDave,

Thank you for your quick response.

I understand that "brem" takes energy out of the system which then needs to be replaced by more input. BUT if that input energy were derived in part by the radiated "brem", that would improve the overall system efficiency, no?

From what I have been able to glean, the major loss is the "brem". If so, recirculating a goodly portion of that energy must be a good thing.

Any ideas on how to capture that energy? Yes, not making it would be best, but I would settle for a functional second best!

[Torulf2]

An X- ray converter is developed by Erick Lerner for use in focus fusion. He has a patent for some devise.

[Art Carlson]

TallDave,

Thank you for your quick response.

I understand that "brem" takes energy out of the system which then needs to be replaced by more input. BUT if that input energy were derived in part by the radiated "brem", that would improve the overall system efficiency, no?

From what I have been able to glean, the major loss is the "brem". If so, recirculating a goodly portion of that energy must be a good thing.

Any ideas on how to capture that energy? Yes, not making it would be best, but I would settle for a functional second best!

In tokamak designs - and probably most other magnetic confinement reactors - the bremsstrahlung will be absorbed by the first wall at a relatively low temperature. It can and might be converted to electricity at, say 30%. In contrast, a high temperature blanket may allow an efficiency of 50%, and a direct conversion system an even higher efficiency. I think there are some ideas for direct conversion of bremsstrahlung radiation, but the frequency and spectrum of the radiation and other constraints makes this a difficult proposition. So the bottom line is, yeah, go ahead and assume conversion of bremsstrahlung to electricity, but don't use a very high efficiency figure.