Production of dense thermonuclear plasmas by intense ion beams
Friedwardt Winterberg
Abstract and summary · read the original at the source
In one page
Friedwardt Winterberg, writing from the University of Nevada in Reno, takes on the practical question behind every fusion scheme: how do you deliver an enormous amount of energy into a very small volume, very fast? In 1975 the two candidate drivers were laser light and beams of relativistic electrons. Winterberg proposes a third — intense beams of heavy ions moving slowly — and the whole argument turns on that slowness. A slow beam can be compressed along its own line of flight, so the pulse that reaches the target is far shorter than the pulse that left the accelerator, and its power is higher by perhaps several orders of magnitude. Slowness pays a second time as well. Because a slow beam can be built up gradually over about a millionth of a second rather than all at once, it can be driven by cheap inductive energy storage rather than an expensive fast capacitor bank — and where capacitors are used, the beam can simply be pulsed from the upper terminal of a Marx generator.
Why it matters hereChapter 12 is the energy-substrate chapter: every architecture on this site needs a small, dense source of energy before anything else, and this is one of the founding papers of the driver line that became heavy-ion inertial fusion. Chapter 9’s dense, self-holding plasma knot is exactly what a compressed beam of this kind is built to make.
What it claims
01The design requirement for a very high density plasma is stated at the outset and is the constraint the whole paper answers to: large energy accumulation within a small volume. Everything that follows is a way of meeting that one condition with the accelerator technology of the day.Abstract, opening sentence
Settled physics02Winterberg proposes intense non-relativistic beams of heavy ions as the driver, offered explicitly as an alternative to the two drivers then under development — laser beams and relativistic electron beams. That choice of a slow, heavy, many-times-charged projectile in place of light or fast electrons is the paper’s central move.Abstract, second sentence
Designed, not yet built03Because the ion velocities are relatively low, the beam can be compressed along its own axis. Winterberg’s estimate is that this axial compression shortens the duration of the beam pulse and raises the beam power by perhaps several orders of magnitude — the pulse that arrives at the target being far more concentrated than the one the accelerator produced.Abstract, third sentence
Designed, not yet built04The same low ion velocity makes it possible to build the beam up slowly, over roughly one millionth of a second, before it is axially compressed and delivered to the target. The slow build-up is not a side effect but part of the design: it separates the timescale on which energy is gathered from the timescale on which it is delivered.Abstract, fourth sentence
Designed, not yet built05That long build-up time is what makes the scheme affordable. Winterberg argues it may permit cheap inductive energy storage devices to drive the beam, rather than the fast capacitor banks the other drivers require; and where capacitors are used, the beam can simply be pulsed with the upper terminal of a Marx generator. What to watch: this is a driver-economics argument set out in 1975, and the measurement that settles it is the cost and repetition rate of a heavy-ion driver actually delivering compression on target.Abstract, final two sentences
What to watch
Read it · abstract
Abstract
For very high density plasmas, large energy accumulation within a small volume is required. As an alternative to laser- or relativistic electron-beams, the employment of intense non-relativistic beams of heavy ions is considered. Because of the rather low ion velocities, the beams can be axially compressed thereby shortening the duration of the beam pulse and increasing the beam power by perhaps several orders of magnitude. The low ion velocities make it possible to build up the beam rather slowly in about approximately 10⁻⁶ sec, prior to its axial compression and delivery to the target. This long build up time may permit the use of cheap inductive energy storage devices to drive the beam. In case capacitors are used one can simply pulse the beam with the upper terminal of a Marx generator.
(Abstract only — see the rights note above. The paper is at doi.org/10.1088/0032-1028/17/1/006. Winterberg’s two studies for the Defense Intelligence Agency’s reference-document series are on this site at /library/stm-c75846c5a6, on advanced nuclear propulsion for manned deep space missions, and /library/stm-bba4f83ea0, on negative-mass propulsion. For the plasma-focus route to the same dense plasma, see /library/stm-ee0d3d807a and /library/stm-05100e66da.)
The way in
https://doi.org/10.1088/0032-1028/17/1/006Plasma Physics 17, 69–77 (1975), written at the University of Nevada, Reno, as recorded in the US Department of Energy OSTI catalogue entry 4222018. The publisher’s page at iopscience.iop.org serves a bot-protection challenge and could not be opened, so the full text was not read for this sheet: the abstract below is the publisher’s own abstract for this DOI as aggregated by OpenAIRE, read on 2026-09-08, and every claim on this page is drawn from that abstract alone and located to it. No open licence is attached to the record, so this page stays abstract-only and sends the reader to the source.
How to cite it
Friedwardt Winterberg (1975) Production of dense thermonuclear plasmas by intense ion beams. doi:10.1088/0032-1028/17/1/006
Where it sits in the curriculum
Lattice confinement fusionPlasmoids, charge clusters and the orbs