Laser-prearc railgun: Development for the application to a fuel pellet injector of a nuclear fusion reactor

The laser-prearc railgun, that utilizes the phenomenon of laser-induced arc formation, was constructed and tested with plastic pellet projectiles. We envision our railgun as especially well suited as a solid hydrogen pellet injector for magnetic confinement fusion. The system consisted of a gas gun for preacceleration of a pellet and a railgun for its primary acceleration. A Q-switched ruby laser was used to induce electrical breakdown of propellant helium gas behind a dielectric pellet in the railgun. The present railgun was shown to accelerate a plastic pellet up to a velocity of 2.4 km/s.