Compact Intense Neutron Generators Based on Inertial Electrostatic Confinement of D-D Fusion Plasmas

摘要

A neutron generator based on inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) of fusion plasmas is being developed for a non-destructive inspection system of special nuclear materials hidden in sea containers. The new IEC device is equipped with a multistage feedthrough which was designed aiming at both capability of a high bias voltage and enhancement of ion recirculation by modification of electric fields in the IEC device. Experimental comparison was made with a conventional single-stage IEC device developed in an earlier work. As the results, both the increase in the applied voltage and the modified field symmetry by the new multistage scheme showed significant enhancement in the neutron output. As a consequence, neutron output per input discharge current was enhanced drastically by a factor of -30 in total. Also, the first pulsing experiments of the newly developed IEC neutron generator showed pulsed neutron output with a rapid pulse fall-off of - 1 μsec successfully.