DT Neutron Yield Modeling for Staged Z-Pinch Experiments on the 1MA Zebra Machine*

Abstract

Confinement of neutron secondaries (14.1MeV) in deuterium Z-pinch plasmas is of significant scientific and practical interest because it is similar to the confinement of 3.5MeV alpha particles produced in the fusion of deuterium and tritium nuclei. During the final Z-pinch stagnation stage, in very dense target plasmas, the alphas are expected to provide additional heating, and eventually lead to ignition.