High yield fusion in a staged Z-pinch

Abstract

Abstract We simulate fusion in a Z-pinch, where the load is a xenon-plasma liner imploding onto a deuterium–tritium (DT) plasma target and the driver is a 2 MJ, 17 MA, 95 ns risetime pulser. The implosion system is modeled using the dynamic, 2 D, radiation-magnetohydrodynamic code, MACH2. During implosion a shock forms in the Xe liner, transporting current and energy radially inward. After collision with the DT, a secondary shock forms pre-heating the DT to several hundred electronvolts. Adiabatic compression leads subsequently to a fusion burn, as the target is surrounded by a flux-compressed, intense, azimuthal-magnetic field. The intense-magnetic field confines fusion α-particles, providing an additional source of ion heating that leads to target ignition. The target remains stable up to the time of ignition. Predictions are for a neutron yield of 3.0 × 10 19 and a thermonuclear energy of 84 MJ, that is, 42 times greater than the initial, capacitor-stored energy.