DEC Train Telemetry
The multi-modal direct-energy-conversion train — TWDEC, ultra-high-field MHD, thermionics — is instrumented so the fabric tracks conversion of escaping particles.
Converting particles, not steam
The burner's direct energy conversion (DEC) train captures the kinetic energy of charged particles escaping the tandem mirror and converts it electrically without a thermal cycle. It is multi-modal: a traveling-wave direct energy converter (TWDEC), an ultra-high-field MHD stage, and thermionic conversion. Each stage is instrumented, and the fabric fuses their telemetry into conversion-state features.
What is measured
- Incoming particle flux and energy spectrum from the mirror exit.
- Grid, collector, and electrode telemetry across the TWDEC stage.
- Field and current telemetry in the ultra-high-field MHD stage.
- Emitter and collector state in the thermionic stage.
Conversion features
From these the fabric engineers the operational conversion features the copilots use for grid-sync and dispatch — expressed as physical quantities, never economic ones. The features describe how well the train is capturing the escaping flux and how the stages are sharing the load, so the operations copilot can schedule and synchronize output.
Coupled upstream
The DEC feed is set by what escapes the mirror, so DEC telemetry is analyzed together with plug and potential telemetry. A change in end-plug confinement shows up as a change in the DEC input spectrum. Because D-3He is low-neutron (5.44% fraction), most of the burner's energy passes through this train, making its instrumentation central. All of this is a design and simulation specification for a machine not yet built.