A machine, article, process of using, process of making, products produced thereby and necessary intermediates. Illustratively, there can be a process that includes: ionizing at least some injected gas to form ions; confining, without using magnetic fields, at least some of said ions to produce confined ions; accumulating at least some of said confined ions to produce accumulated ions; cooling at least some of said accumulated ions to produce cooled ions; compressing, without using magnetic fields, at least some of said accumulated ions to produce compressed ions; accelerating at least some of said compressed ions to produce accelerated ions; ejecting at least some of said accelerated ions; and measuring at least one property of said ejected ions.

A nuclear fusion reactor includes a chamber containing plasma and two or more devices which include superconducting electromagnetic coils. At least one of the two or more devices may be biased to a high voltage to provide thermal energy to ions in the magnetic confinement region. In some examples, the chamber and the two or more devices can be coaxial and toroid shaped. In some examples, the chamber can be spherical or cylindrical with the two or more devices being toroid or elongated toroid shaped and formed on opposite faces of a cuboid. The two or more devices may be disposed in the chamber to provide a high-beta magnetic confinement region for the plasma.

Systems and methods are provided that facilitate stability of an FRC plasma in both radial and axial directions and axial position control of an FRC plasma along the symmetry axis of an FRC plasma chamber. The systems and methods exploit an axially unstable equilibria of the FRC plasma to enforce radial stability, while stabilizing or controlling the axial instability. The systems and methods provide feedback control of the FRC plasma axial position independent of the stability properties of the plasma equilibrium by acting on the voltages applied to a set of external coils concentric with the plasma and using a non-linear control technique.

The invention relates to electrical engineering, in particular, to the manufacturing technology of flexible high-temperature superconductors (HTS) with high critical current density in external magnetic field and to the method of manufacturing of said superconductors (tapes). The invention is applicable to industrial manufacturing of HTS wires with very high values of critical current density in magnetic fields over 1 Tesla at temperatures below 50 Kelvin, in particular, to industrial manufacturing of HTS wires intended for application in compact fusion reactors. Flexible high temperature superconductor is comprised of a substrate and a superconductor layer with RE.sub.1+2xBa.sub.2Cu.sub.3O.sub.7+3x overall composition comprised of a superconductor matrix of REBa.sub.2Cu.sub.3O.sub.7 composition and non-superconducting nanoparticles of RE.sub.2O.sub.3 composition, where x=0.05-0.15, RE is a rare earth element from the Y, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb and Lu group, whereas the concentration density of the said nanoparticles is at least 10.sup.16 nanoparticles/cm.sup.3. Method of manufacturing of the superconductor is comprised of pulsed laser deposition of superconductor material with RE.sub.1+2xBa.sub.2Cu.sub.3O.sub.7+3x overall composition, where x=0.05-0.15, RE is rare earth element from the Y, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb and Lu group, onto a substrate moving through the deposition zone and heated to a temperature of at least 800° C., whereas the deposition is performed using an ablated target made from multiphase sintered ceramics comprised of chemical elements that compose the superconductor material, at a deposition rate greater than 100 nm/s and at a temperature gradient in the deposition zone that ensures the deposition of the superconductor material without the formation of liquid phase. The invention allows for improvement of the properties of flexible high temperature superconductor by increasing its critical current in high magnetic fields and ensures simple and economic large scale production of said HTS conductor with improved properties.

A sealable volume has a wall forming at least a portion of a boundary limiting the volume. The wall includes a hydrogen permeation barrier including a layer system (LS) having at least one layer. The layer system includes at least one hydrogen barrier layer (HPBL) of an at least ternary oxide. Preferably, the oxide is substantially composed of Al, Cr and O and the hydrogen barrier layer (HPBL) is deposited using physical vapor deposition, in particular cathodic arc evaporation. Preferably, the layer system includes at least one of: an adhesion layer (AdhL), a hydrogen storage layer (HStL), a protective layer (ProtL), in particular a thermal barrier layer (ThBL), a diffusion barrier layer (DBL), an oxidation barrier layer (OxBL), a chemical barrier layer (ChBL), a wear resistance layer (WRL). Excellent hydrogen permeation barrier properties can be achieved, and the layer system can be tailored as required by an envisaged application.

A neutron tube. At least some of the illustrative embodiments including: generating, from a neutron tube, a first neutron burst having a first characteristic energy spectra; and generating, from the neutron tube, a second neutron burst having a second characteristic energy spectra different than the first characteristic energy spectra, the generating the second neutron burst within one second of generating the first neutron burst.

A method for generating heat reactions between hydrogen isotopes and a metal catalyst includes placing at least one fuel source within a reactor. The reactor includes an anode and a cathode, wherein the cathode is a metallic vessel, wherein the at least one fuel source comprises a metal substrate thermally sprayed with a metal catalyst, and wherein the at least one fuel source is in thermal and electrical contact with the reactor. The method includes sealing the reactor to produce a vacuum within the reactor. The method includes adding hydrogen to the reactor and adding deuterium to the reactor. The method includes supplying a current to the reactor from a DC power supply.

Electric An Electric Power Generation System generates electric power by capturing energy released from transmutation/conversion of one or more chemical element(s) into one or more other element/s, using any one or more elements of the periodic table. The captured energy is converted into electricity in a rector. The system preferably includes a transmutation reactor and an energy capturing system coupled to the reactor that converts captured energy into electricity, and connecting the electric energy to the electric grid or uses it on site power generation. In particular, the energy released in the of transmutation process is directly converted into electric power. Preferably, transmutation products that emerge in the form of charged particles, X-rays and heat, release energy removed from the fusion product ions as they spiral past electrodes of an inverse cyclotron converter.

A confinement chamber for Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) may include a closed hohlraum and ICF target wherein the ICF target may comprise a central spherical fuel region, inner shell, outer fuel region, outer shell, and propellant region. A multitude of cylindrical beam channels may penetrate the entire thickness of the hohlraum. At the end of each cylindrical beam channel, where they exit the hohlraum, is a hemispherical cavity. Centered in the curvature of each cavity, and coaxial with each beam channel is a gold foam radiator. By layering materials or grading the density of a material in the propellant region of the closed hohlraum ICF target, the pressure profile on the outer shell may be tailored.

In an aspect, a plasma focus apparatus produces pulsed high temperature plasma that emits multi-radiation including ion beams, electron beams, fast plasma streams, x-rays and nuclear fusion neutrons. This plasma focus apparatus includes an electrode assembly including an inner and at least one outer electrode, as well as a plurality of capacitors connected to the electrode assembly in parallel to form the high energy density, high current density plasma, where the arrangement and shape of the capacitors and other elements of the circuitry and electrode assembly provide a system with low stray inductance.