IEC BREEDER FOR D-HE-3 SATELLITE SYSTEMS

D-He-3 fusion minimizes neutrons and maximizes charged fusion products , enabling Increased energy recovery efficiency by direct conversion H owever, scarce He-3 terrestrial resources(1) have deterred research & development (R&D) on this alternative. Here, we explore He-3 productio n through inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) breeders, which sup ply He-3 to field-reversed configuration (FRC) satellite reactors.(2) The breeder-satellite system is analyzed in terms of energy balance. t aking the net energy gain of the overall system as the key parameter. An economic study determines the competitiveness of breeding with resp ect to He-3 lunar mining, already shown to be an attractive route for commercial exploitation.(3)