Power & Gain Scaling? - DONE

[KitemanSA]

Unless you are aiming for the special peak with p11B, you would probably do better by adjusting the fuel density or well depth.

Since the fuel will need to be metered in precisely and continuously, and since the rate is ALSO bound to be a function of sigma*velocity which is a function of well depth, those two factors would probably be a simpler choke than the magnetic field.

[TallDave]

Dan/Kite,

Remember guys, the device must operate at something like beta=1 for the WB effect to take place. You can't change the fuel ion density (which must adjusted at the same rate as the electron density) without also changing the B field to match.

There might be some leeway (maybe beta = .9 close enough) and we don't really understand the WB effect that well (is it B field geometry from electron pressure? is it cold electrons in the cusps? is it both?), but we do know cusp confinement won't be good enough.

Well depth might be easiest to tune. I wonder what Rick sees as the "throttle" in his reactor designs. Maybe we should start a list of questions, we might be able to get a few minutes of his time at the next IEC conference...

[D Tibbets]

Dan/Kite,

Remember guys, the device must operate at something like beta=1 for the WB effect to take place. You can't change the fuel ion density (which must adjusted at the same rate as the electron density) without also changing the B field to match.

There might be some leeway (maybe beta = .9 close enough) and we don't really understand the WB effect that well (is it B field geometry from electron pressure? is it cold electrons in the cusps? is it both?), but we do know cusp confinement won't be good enough.

Well depth might be easiest to tune. I wonder what Rick sees as the "throttle" in his reactor designs. Maybe we should start a list of questions, we might be able to get a few minutes of his time at the next IEC conference...

Mmm... True, it might be desirable to maintain Beta near 1. Is the electron pressure alone enough?, can the ions be turned off (or down) and still maintain Beta near 1? If magnetic field strength needs to be maintained at a constant level, then changing the fuel composition (poisoning it) might be a way to throttle it. As the ion lifetimes are well under a second, response times would be fairly fast.
If you are burning D-D, introduce hydrogen in place of some of the deuterium to throttle it down. If you are burning P-B11, introduce extra protons (hydrogen) to dillute the reaction mixture (such that the ratio is ~ 10-100 to 1 instead of the ideal (?) 8 to 1. You would have to pay attention to how the different mass particles (and Z) act, but it should be controlable within limits.
With P-B11 fuel, increasing the proton to boron ratio would not only slow the fusion rate, but would also decrease the background bremsstrulung radiation.

Dan Tibbets

[TallDave]

Sure, you just have to have the same number of electrons and protons within about a 1: (1 + 1E-6) ratio. You can maybe change the flow (e.g., a lower well depth will consume fewer ions) just not the density.

Fuel mix sounds doable to me.

[MSimon]

One thing to keep in mind. With SCs smaller bores (within engineering reason) lead to higher power.