Gas discharge apparatus

摘要

839,248. Nuclear fission reactors; electric discharge tubes. UNITED KINGDOM ATOMIC ENERGY AUTHORITY. Aug. 15, 1951 [Aug. 15, 1950], No. 20289/50. Classes 39(1) and 39(4). Gas discharge apparatus for producing thermonuclear reactions comprises a toroidal vessel for containing a gas, electromagnetic means for causing a magnetic wave to travel unidirectionally around the vessel in the gas to induce transverse rings of current in it, the rings being dragged along by the wave to constitute direct current, the magnetic field of which tends to contain the gas independlenty of the vessel, and means for stabilising the path of the current. In Fig. 2, the quartz torus 1 is surrounded by eight coils 2 suitably connected to ring mains 16, 17, 18 carrying a 20 Mcs/sec. supply so that a travelling wave system flows round the torus ; the ring mains are hollow and also serve to feed cooling water to the coils 2 which are also hollow. The torus is mounted in an aluminium trough 6 through which cooling water is circulated via inlet and outlet pipes 7, 8. Four multi-turn field coils 24 are provided within the trough 6 to stabilise the discharge ; the coils are designed to carry 50,000 ampere turns flowing in the opposite direction to the ring discharge so that the net current flow over a cross-section is substantially zero, and the number of turns on the inner coils is different from those on the outer coils so that a curved field similar to a betation guide field is obtained. The torus is provided with a gas inlet 11 and outlet 12 and may be mounted beneath a thick aluminium shield 10, and the whole may be arranged inside a concrete biological shield, Fig. 3 (not shown). In operation the torus is filled with deuterium at a pressure of about 10-2 mm. of mercury and the A.C. supply switched on at low power to initiate a low power discharge; the power is then increased and the pressure reduced to 10-5 mm., the D.C. stabilising current being increased in step with the ring discharge current which reaches about 50,000 amps. Specification 839,247 is referred to.