Fusion research started for Moir in 1962 as a graduate student at MIT and continues to date with an emphasis on power plant studies. Longstanding themes are liquid walls – especially molten salt – as a mitigation against neutron damage to the first wall and direct energy conversion of charged particles to electricity.

Fusion

Selected fusion research papers and presentations

R. W. Moir, “Liquid wall chambers for HIF,” Presentation to 19th International Symposium on Heavy Ion Inertial Fusion (HIF2012), Berkeley, California, USA.

R. W. Moir, “Jets and droplets compared to a moving slab of liquid for divertor cooling for a tokamak magnetic fusion energy reactor” Vallecitos Molten
Salt Research Report No. 1, 51 pages, (2008).

R. W. Moir and T. D. Rognlien, “Axisymmetric tandem mirror magnetic fusion energy power plant with thick liquid-walls” Fusion Science and Technology 52, (2007) 408-416.

R. W. Moir, “Inertial Fusion Energy Power Plants Based on Laser or Ion Beams” Proceedings of The Ninth International Conference on Emerging Nuclear Energy Systems (ICENES-9), Tel-Aviv, Israel, June 28-July 2, 1998.

R. W. Moir, R. L. Bieri, X. M. Chen, T. J. Dolan, M. A. Hoffman, P. A. House, R. L. Leber, J. D. Lee, Y. T. Lee, J. C. Liu, G. R. Longhurst, W. R. Meier, P. F. Peterson, R. W. Petzoldt, V. E. Schrock, M. T. Tobin, W. H. Williams, “HYLIFE-II: A Molten Salt Inertial Fusion Energy Power Plant Design-Final Report” Fusion Technology 25 (1994) 5-25.

“Design of a Helium-Cooled Molten Salt Fusion Breeder” Fusion Technology, Vol. 8, No. 1 Part 2(A) 465 (1985).

“Venetian-Blind Direct Energy Converter for Fusion Reactors” Nuclear Fusion, 13, 35-45 (1973).

More direct conversion papers

In the early days of the magnetic mirror fusion program we spent a lot of effort on direct energy conversion. The theoretical gain of the magnetic mirror was low (Q only slightly over unity; Q =  Pfusion/Pinjection) so the role of direct energy conversion was to improve the prospects for a power plant. We developed both plasma direct convertors and ion beam direct convertors to improve the efficiency of neutral beam injectors (recovery of unneutralized beams). Askmar Direct Energy

Continuous Cryopumping

Development of continuous duty cryopumping was carried out at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Grumman Aerospace Corporation.

D.W. Sedgley, A.G. Tobin, T.H. Batzer, W.R. Call, “Development of a continuous duty cryopump.” (1986).

D.W. Sedgley, A.G.Tobin, T.H. Batzer, W.R. Call, “Cryopump for Fusion Reactor.” Nuclear Engineering and Design, Fusion, 4, 149-163 (1987).