Ablation of a Deuterium Pellet in a Fusion Plasma Viewed as a Stopping Power Problem

At present, the most exploited technology to refuel a future fusion reactor is the high speed injection of macroscopic size pellet of solid hydrogen isotopes. The basic idea is that the ablation of a pellet in a fusion reactor is mainly caused by thermal electrons (~ 10 keV) /1/. Due to the low sublimation energy of hydrogen isotopes, shortly after the direct impact of the electrons, a dense cloud forms around the pellet.

This cloud of ablated material then serves as a stopping medium for the incoming electrons, thus prolongs the pellet life-time. As a result, the deep penetration of the pellet into the reactor center becomes possible.