Colliding beam fusion reactor

In this paper aspects of conceptual reactor designs are investigated that are based on the FRC configuration for D-T, D-He³ , and p-B¹¹ reactions. The fuel ions are of sufficient energy that the orbit size is large enough so that classical transport should prevail in the absence of long wavelength instabilities. We begin by reviewing briefly some evidence for classical confinement in such a system. Next we address the key issue of current maintenance by injecting beams of neutral atoms into an FRC. Although there are many theoretical papers on this subject, there are no experiments. Our investigation of this issue starts with a discussion of FRC experiments, the current carried by ions and the decay of current due to Coulomb interactions of electrons and ions. We then consider periodic pulses of injected neutrals in order to maintain a steady state ion current in the FRC. The injected neutrals constitute a source of ions and electrons and for a steady state there must be a sink. For a burning plasma the dominant sink is the fusion reactions