Theoretical analysis demonstrates electron-dominated axial loss in deuterium-helium-3 mirrors, indicating direct energy conversion offers bounded power recovery rather than reactor closure.
For a deuterium-helium-3 magnetic-mirror burner, the axial loss is dominated by a directed electron stream (55.5% vs 44.5% ions), inverting the birth-spectrum picture across 20-200 keV. A quasineutral two-species expander recovers a bounded fraction of it. Direct energy conversion is a bounded lever, not the closure mechanism; no converter has been built. New version (2.0).
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Ford et al. (2026) studied this question.
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