Lawson criterion (redirected from Confinement time)

Lawson criterion [′lȯs·ən krī‚tir·ē·ən]

(plasma physics)

The requirement for the energy produced by fusion in a plasma to exceed that required to produce the confined plasma; it states that for a mixture of deuterium and tritium in the temperature range from 1 × 10⁸to 5 × 10⁸degrees Celsius, the product of the ionic density and the confinement time must be about 10¹⁴seconds per cubic centimeter.

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Lawson criterion

A necessary but not sufficient condition for the achievement of a net release of energy from nuclear fusion reactions in a fusion reactor. As originally formulated by J. D. Lawson, this condition simply stated that a minimum requirement for net energy release is that the fusion fuel charge must combust for at least enough time for the recovered fusion energy release to equal the sum of energy invested in heating that charge to fusion temperatures, plus other energy losses occurring during combustion. The Lawson criterion is to be thought of as only a rule of thumb for measuring fusion progress; detailed evaluation of all energy dissipative and energy recovery processes is required in order properly to evaluate any specific system. See Nuclear fusion