novel compact nuclear fusion concept based on a 20 MeV tabletop electron storage ring (ESR), which electrostatically confines and accelerates deuterium and tritium ions to fusion-relevant energies.
....analytical calculations and simulations suggest that a confined ion population of 10^17 within a volume of 1.25 × 10^-5 m^3 can yield fusion power exceeding 2 MW
It's not entirely clear what exists and what's simulated. I assume everything through the first paragraph in section 3 exists, and everything after the phrase "simulation results" within section 3 is simulated. I'm not sure about the parts in between. In particular, have they tried puffing in hydrogen?
I don't understand how the 50 KV acceleration gap is supposed to work. All the ions crossing the gap would gain the same amount of energy (since D and T have the same charge), whereas fusion would be driven by collisions (i.e. differential velocity). T ions have more mass than D ions, so there would be a velocity difference after crossing the gap. Is that what they're depending on? By my calculations, that 50 KV gap would yield a collision energy in the CM frame of 50 KV/99 ~ 500 V, which is far to low for fusion.
Also, after one trip around, each ion would be back to the same potential, so the D and T ions would no longer have different axial velocities. However, their estimated fusion reaction rate assumes fusion is taking place uniformly within the ring.
I assume they have not tested this concept with D and T (or they'd have made a much bigger announcement). Why not? Maybe because they don't have enough shielding to handle that many neutrons? Or maybe they are not licensed to handle (that much) T?