Nuclear fusion researchers spot strange, high-energy behavior in burning plasma

Nuclear fusion is what I call solar power! 😊

"... Researchers recently took an important step towards this goal with the achievement of a self-heating “burning plasma,” and now a closer inspection of that plasma has revealed strange, unexplained behavior of ions within it. ...
New analysis of this burning plasma has now shown it behaves in an unexpected way, with the ions inside it shown to have higher energy than what the models had projected. ..."

"Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have discovered that ions behave differently in fusion reactions than previously expected, thus providing important insights for the future design of a laser­–fusion energy source. ...
The work shows that neutron energy measurements on the high-yield burning and igniting inertial confinement fusion experiments (ICF) showed that the average neutron energy produced is higher than expected for a deuterium-tritium (D-T) plasma that is in thermal equilibrium. ... 

While researchers don’t have a clear understanding of what is driving this observation, it is one of the most direct measurements of the ions undergoing fusion and is not captured by the simulations that are used to understand how to improve ICF implosions and deliver on the Lab’s mission generating a robust and reliable ignition platform. ..."

From the abstract:

"At the National Ignition Facility, inertial confinement fusion experiments aim to burn and ignite a hydrogen plasma to generate a net source of energy through the fusion of deuterium and tritium ions. The energy deposited by α-particles released from the deuterium–tritium fusion reaction plays the central role in heating the fuel to achieve a sustained thermonuclear burn. In the hydrodynamic picture, α-heating increases the temperature of the plasma, leading to increased reactivity because the mean ion kinetic energy increases. Therefore, the ion temperature is related to the mean ion kinetic energy. Here we use the moments of the neutron spectrum to study the relationship between the ion temperature (measured by the variance in the neutron kinetic energy spectrum) and the ion mean kinetic energy (measured by the shift in the mean neutron energy). We observe a departure from the relationship expected for plasmas where the ion relative kinetic energy distribution is Maxwell–Boltzmann, when the plasma begins to burn. Understanding the cause of this departure from hydrodynamic behaviour could be important for achieving robust and reproducible ignition."

Fusion researchers spot strange, high-energy behavior in burning plasma

LLNL researchers observe that ions behave differently in fusion reactions

Evidence for suprathermal ion distribution in burning plasmas (no public access)