An Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Reactor Assessed Honestly: Grid Losses, Charge Exchange and the Net-Power Shortfall

This paper presents a complete, computed design study of a fusion power plant based on a inertial electrostatic confinement device: a spherical vacuum vessel with a biased transparent grid at its centre, across which ions fall and converge. The fuel is deuterium tritium, releasing 17.6 MeV per reaction, of which 14.1 MeV leaves with the neutron and 3.5 MeV stays with the alpha particle. Heating is by high-voltage electrostatic acceleration of ions through a transparent cathode grid, and the blanket concept is minimal shielding only, since the computed neutron output does not justify a breeding blanket. Sizing follows from a zero-dimensional energy balance evaluated in the accompanying computation: fusion power 0.00363 MW, auxiliary heating 120 MW, plasma gain Q 3.02e-05, neutron power 0.00291 MW, first-wall neutron loading 0.000361 MW per square metre, gross electric output 44.28 MW, recirculating power 174.7 MW and net electric output -130.4 MW. Radiated bremsstrahlung removes 2.51e-05 MW and transport removes 61.85 MW, against alpha-particle self-heating of 0.000722 MW. The plant verdict on the stated assumptions is net negative. Where a quantity depends on an assumption that experiments have not yet demonstrated at the required value, that dependence is stated numerically so that the design can be re-scored as measurements improve. This study is simulated and computed from stated assumptions; it is not a measurement, and no part of the plant has been built. SIMULATED, NOT MEASURED.