PLASMA DISTRIBUTION

            High energy plasma is one of the lifeblood’s of a starship, this energetic stream of ionized particles is the ideal energy source for a wide range of applications, the driver coils are immersed in this fluid, and draw their energy from it, weapons tailor fine strands of it across space, in short is a principle power source of all devices powerful and potent.

But high-energy plasma is a difficult fluid to handle, with temperatures hotter than the surface of a star, radiating not only visible light, but producing radiance across a broad spectrum some of which is harmful to organic life, and on top of this it is seething ionic inferno and electrical charges fluctuate in this medium harming unshielded electronic systems. For these reasons the distribution and containment of plasma is an important part of utilities handling in any ship.

Some of the seemingly hazardous properties of hot plasmas actually help in their handling, plasmas are composed purely of ions, and these ions are affected by magnetic fields, by this behavior we have our principle method of handling plasma, by magnetic confinement. Throughout all the ducts in the plasma distribution networks rank upon rank of superconducting coils produce powerful fields that restrain the plasma from the sides of the conduit, forming an invisible magnetic lumen lining the inside of the conduit itself.

Magnetic confinement prevents the plasma contacting the material of the conduit, which it would degrade, no matter how strong, but just preventing physical contact would not be enough to provide safe distribution of plasma, the pipes also have to withstand the radiance of the fluid. Typical high-energy plasma, will have a ‘temperature’ of a few hundred thousand Kelvin, this means that a lot of the radiant output is emitted in ultraviolet and soft X-ray, these are almost as problematic as thermal radiance of the fluid. The inside of most high-energy plasma conduits are lined with a thin layer of massless neutronium, a material that has proved a godsend to so many applications.

The discovery and the ability to manufacture such a material has provided designers with a material that is almost a perfect insulator against nearly all forms of energy, as well as providing physical properties which are unexcelled in physical matter, all of which are provided in a material no more dense than aluminium, or no more liable to corrosion as the most noble of metals.

The layer of neutronium shields most of the thermal and all of the spectral output of the plasma, acting as an effective barrier to all electromagnetic radiation, without causing interference to the magnetic containment. This liner also allows very little loss of energy from the plasma during its transport, and also allows for the cooling of conduit systems on the other side of liner without heat being readily lost from the plasma.

The containment of plasma is well dealt with by magnetic and physical means, but the conduit systems also require specialized systems. Firstly the pipes have to be cooled, firstly to remove the heat from the fluid they carry, and also for the operation of the superconducting magnets that generate the magnetic field. The cooling is usually by flooding the interior space of the conduit between the central lumen and the outer layer with liquid hydrogen or helium, this fluid is then cycled through other heat transfer systems, this system also provided a failsafe for the pipe, as a rupture of plasma is cooled by this surrounding fluid, while that section is cleared of plasma.

The other service that needs to be provided is that of power, most systems use the elegant solution of tapping the power available in the plasmas they carry, elaborate thermopile systems, and use of driver coil material, mean that thermal differences can be exploited, and power collected without out adding extra heat burden on the cooling systems, the energy collected is sufficient not only to power the superconductor magnets, but also subsidiary cooling systems and control instrumentation.

The movement of the plasma in the network is essentially frictionless, but the flow is increased by peristaltic pumping of the magnetic fields, this system can be cycled hundreds of times a second, increasing the velocity of the plasma to hundreds of metres per second, this allows for minimal energy loss while in transit, and also means that the system can rapidly supply changing needs, or to clear sections of network if there threatens to be loss of containment.

The actual plasma network is generally not as complex as for other systems, such as heat management, or optical data networks, this down to the fact fewer applications have need of plasma, and fewer devices generate it. However this simple network has a lot of complicated equipment, not only are the conduits themselves complicated pieces of design, but the system also contains, magnetic valves and pumps, reservoirs for plasma, venting systems and devices that monitor and analyze the condition of the plasma flowing through the system.

The high-energy plasma system is important for transferring the colossal energy outputs of the engines to the driver coils, and also responsible for power generation for most of the ships systems. Power taps similar in design to ones found in the pipes themselves can be found throughout the ship, generating electrical energy from the plasma, and also other forms of power, optical wavelengths for computing, microwave and radio wave frequencies for other applications. The energy pulled from the plasma system alone is sufficient to run most starships auxiliary systems, and provide good backups to dedicated power generation systems.