Spin-polarized fusion

[mkovari]

This sounds very sophisticated but in fact nothing could be simpler.

"it is well established both theoretically and experimentally that the D-T cross-section can be increased by almost exactly 50% when all spins of both nuclei are completely polarized so that they are oriented parallel to the confining magnetic field."
(Physics of spin-polarized plasmas, Kulsrud, Valeo and Cowley)

To allow for this we would just need to multiply the DT fusion cross-section by a user-specified factor in the range 1 - 1.5.

If we wanted to be fancy we could calculate the cross-section enhancement using the polarization fractions of the D and T nuclei. The relevant formulae are given in Parisi et al (covered by Jonny in the Journal Club today).