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Sep 24 – 29, 2023
US/Eastern timezone

The Polarized 7LiD Program at Jefferson Lab for Polarized Fusion Experiments at DIII-D Tokamak

Sep 27, 2023, 11:30 AM
30m
JuniorA1-A2 (Durham Convention Center)

JuniorA1-A2

Durham Convention Center

Talk Polarized Ion and Lepton Sources and Targets Polarized Ion and Lepton Sources and Targets

Speaker

Xiangdong Wei

Description

Polarized fuels in a tokamak fusion reactor can increase the cross section by 50%, and the power gain of an ITER-scale fusion reactor by 75%. The question is: can polarized materials survive inside a hot fusion plasma for times long enough to reap these expected gains? An in−situ polarization survivability test in a tokamak plasma is planned to address this. In a recent proposal (see William Heidbrink's plenary talk), we plan to prepare polarized $^7$LiD pellets and $^3$He capsules for injection into a hot plasma in the DIII-D tokamak, using the D + $^3$He $\rightarrow$ α + p reaction as a test bed. The $^7$LiD pellets need to be precisely engineered with fusion specifications, irradiated with electron beams at ~185K to induce paramagnetic centers, and stored at 77K. A dilution refrigerator-based DNP polarizer suitable to the planned fusion experiment will be designed and built at Jefferson Lab. This device will load the pre-irradiated $^7$LiD pellets, at ~2mm in size, into a polarization chamber, polarize them with microwaves at ~7 Tesla and ~100 mK, and measure polarization of individual pellets before dispensing into a tokamak gas gun pellet injector. Details will be discussed.

Primary author

Co-authors

Dr Andy Sandorfi (University of Virginia) Dr Larry Bayler (Oak Ridge National Laboratory) Prof. William Heidbrink (University of California-Irvine) Prof. Wilson Miller (University of Virginia) Prof. Xiaochao Zheng (University of Virginia)

Presentation materials