scholarly journals New aspects for fusion energy using inertial confinement

2007 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
HEINRICH HORA
Keyword(s):  
Inertial Confinement Fusion ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Fusion Energy ◽  
Particle Beam ◽  
Short Review ◽  
Skin Layer ◽  
Laser Fusion ◽  
Ignition Process ◽  
Inertial Confinement ◽  
Confinement Fusion

Magnetic confinement fusion (MCF) based on neutral particle beam irradiation reached the highest gains with JET and is discussed in relation to the ITER project for a possible re-orientation with respect to the ignition process. Ignition plays a similar role for inertial confinement fusion (ICF). After a short review about specific ICF developments, the fast igniter development offered a re-consideration of igniting DT fuel at modest or low compression. The observation of extreme anomalies (Sauerbrey 1996, Zhanget al., 1998 and Badziaket al., 1999) at interaction of picosecond (ps) laser pulses above TW power could be explained as a skin layer mechanism based on earlier computations (Horaet al., 2002) with nonlinear (ponderomotive) force acceleration. The resulting very high ion current density space charge neutral plasma blocks interacting as pistons to ignite DT may lead to a new scheme of laser fusion with low cost energy generation.

The Magnetic Booster Target Inertial Confinement Fusion Driver

1984 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 325-341
Author(s):  
F. Winterberg
Keyword(s):  
Inertial Confinement Fusion ◽  
Fluid Dynamic ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Substantial Reduction ◽  
Particle Beam ◽  
Black Body Radiation ◽  
Hypervelocity Impact ◽  
Inertial Confinement ◽  
Charged Particle Beam ◽  
Confinement Fusion

A promising candidate for a near-term low-cost inertial confinement fusion driver is the magnetic booster target concept. In it a small high density magnetically confined plasma and which serves as booster stage, is compressed and ignited by hypervelocity impact. The energy released in the magnetic booster stage, after being transformed into black body radiation, ablatively implodes a high gain second stage target and which releases most of the thermonuclear energy. Alternatively, the energy released in the booster stage can be also used to compress and ignite a target as in impact fusion. The importance of this concept is that it permits to drive the booster stage with a mass accelerator at a velocity of a few 10 km/sec, which is small compared to the velocity required for pure impact fusion, even though it is more than one order of magnitude larger than what can be directly reached with ordinary guns or high explosives. The required velocities can probably be reached by magnetic guns and by fluid dynamic methods through the implosion of cylindrical or spherical shells driven by light gas gun fired projectiles. In comparison to laser- or charged particle beam drivers, the initial driver power is several orders of magnitude smaller and which should lead to a substantial reduction in the driver cost.

scholarly journals Volume ignition of inertial confinement fusion of deuterium-helium(3) and hydrogen-boron(ll) clean fusion fuel

1992 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Pieruschka ◽  
L. Cicchitelli ◽  
R. Khoda-Bakhsh ◽  
E. Kuhn ◽  
G. H. Miley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Inertial Confinement Fusion ◽  
Fusion Energy ◽  
Laser Pulses ◽  
Laser Fusion ◽  
Inertial Confinement ◽  
The Future ◽  
Confinement Fusion ◽  
Helium 3 ◽  
Fusion Energy Reactor ◽  
Volume Ignition

Since DT laser fusion with 10-MJ laser pulses for 1000-MJ output now offers the physics solution for an economical fusion energy reactor, the conditions are evaluated assuming that controlled ICF reactions will become possible in the future using clean nuclear fusion fuel such as deuterium-helium(3) or hydrogen-boron(11). Using the transparent physics mechanisms of volume ignition of the fuel capsules, we show that the volume ignition for strong reduction of the optimum initial temperature can be reached for both types of fuels if a compression about 100 times higher than those in present-day laser compression experiments is attained in the future. Helium(3) laser-pulse energies are then in the same range as for DT, but ten times higher energies will be required for hydrogenboron(11).

scholarly journals Developments in inertial fusion energy and beam fusion at magnetic confinement

2004 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 439-449 ◽  
Author(s):  
HEINRICH HORA
Keyword(s):  
Inertial Confinement Fusion ◽  
Fusion Reaction ◽  
Fusion Energy ◽  
Magnetic Confinement ◽  
Skin Layer ◽  
Inertial Fusion ◽  
Inertial Fusion Energy ◽  
Inertial Confinement ◽  
Fusion Reactions ◽  
Confinement Fusion

The 70-year anniversary of the first nuclear fusion reaction of hydrogen isotopes by Oliphant, Harteck, and Rutherford is an opportunity to realize how beam fusion is the path for energy production, including both branches, the magnetic confinement fusion and the inertial fusion energy (IFE). It is intriguing that Oliphant's basic concept for igniting controlled fusion reactions by beams has made a comeback even for magnetic confinement plasma, after this beam fusion concept was revealed by the basically nonlinear processes of the well-known alternative of inertial confinement fusion using laser or particle beams. After reviewing the main streams of both directions some results are reported—as an example of possible alternatives—about how experiments with skin layer interaction and avoiding relativistic self-focusing of clean PW–ps laser pulses for IFE may possibly lead to a simplified fusion reactor scheme without the need for special compression of solid deuterium–tritium fuel.

scholarly journals Laser driven implosion

1990 ◽  
Vol 8 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 3-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Yamanaka
Keyword(s):  
Inertial Confinement Fusion ◽  
Laser Energy ◽  
Laser Fusion ◽  
Plastic Shell ◽  
Inertial Confinement ◽  
Liquid Density ◽  
Direct Drive ◽  
Uniform Compression ◽  
Confinement Fusion ◽  
Key Issues

Inertial confinement fusion (ICF) has made great progress. In fact several significant scientific firsts have been achieved in the last year. These developments have presented the ICF community with an opportunity to embark on a new phase in ICF research. The key issues of laser fusion are to attain a high absorption of laser light in a plasma, to prevent preheating of fuel during the compression, and to achieve highly efficient implosion by uniform compression of fuel due to the homogeneous deposition of laser energy on the pellet surface. Direct drive and indirect drive have been investigated. The progress in both schemes is remarkable. The neutron yield by the stagnation free compression of the LHART target has attained 1013 which corresponds to a pellet gain of 1/500. The plastic shell target has reached a fuel density as large as 600 times the liquid density which is measured by the Si activation method as well as the D knockon method. A cryogenic foam target is now under investigation.

scholarly journals Prospects for high gain inertial fusion energy: an introduction to the first special edition

2020 ◽  
Vol 378 (2184) ◽  
pp. 20200006 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. A. Norreys ◽  
C. Ridgers ◽  
K. Lancaster ◽  
M. Koepke ◽  
G. Tynan
Keyword(s):  
Inertial Confinement Fusion ◽  
Fusion Energy ◽  
High Gain ◽  
Inertial Fusion ◽  
Inertial Fusion Energy ◽  
Inertial Confinement ◽  
Energy Part ◽  
Confinement Fusion ◽  
Alternative Approaches ◽  
Basic Studies

A European consortium of 15 laboratories across nine nations have worked together under the EUROFusion Enabling Research grants for the past decade with three principle objectives. These are: (a) investigating obstacles to ignition on megaJoule-class laser facilities; (b) investigating novel alternative approaches to ignition, including basic studies for fast ignition (both electron and ion-driven), auxiliary heating, shock ignition etc.; and (c) developing technologies that will be required in the future for a fusion reactor. The Hooke discussion meeting in March 2020 provided an opportunity to reflect on the progress made in inertial confinement fusion research world-wide to date. This first edition of two special issues seeks to identify paths forward to achieve high fusion energy gain. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Prospects for high gain inertial fusion energy (part 1)’.

Design of Neutron Imaging Aperture for Inertial Confinement Fusion in Laser Fusion Research Center

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (11) ◽  
pp. C11007-C11007
Author(s):  
Z. Chen ◽  
X. Zhang ◽  
F. Wang ◽  
J. Zheng ◽  
X. Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Inertial Confinement Fusion ◽  
Neutron Imaging ◽  
Research Center ◽  
Laser Fusion ◽  
Inertial Confinement ◽  
Fusion Research ◽  
Confinement Fusion

Alternatives to tokamaks: a faster-better-cheaper route to fusion energy?

2019 ◽  
Vol 377 (2141) ◽  
pp. 20170431 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Clery
Keyword(s):  
Inertial Confinement Fusion ◽  
Fusion Energy ◽  
Easy Access ◽  
No Production ◽  
Inertial Confinement ◽  
Start Up ◽  
Unlimited Supply ◽  
Confinement Fusion ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Difficult Challenge

The use of thermonuclear fusion as a source for energy generation has been a goal of plasma physics for more than six decades. Its advantages are many: easy access to fuel and virtually unlimited supply; no production of greenhouse gases; and little radioactive waste produced. But heating fuel to the high temperature necessary for fusion—at least 100 million degrees Celsius—and containing it at that level has proved to be a difficult challenge. The ring-shaped magnetic confinement of tokamaks, which emerged in the 1960s, was quickly identified as the most promising approach and remains so today although a practical commercial reactor remains decades away. While tokamaks have rightly won most fusion research funding, other approaches have also been pursued at a lower level. Some, such as inertial confinement fusion, have emerged from nuclear weapons programs and others from academic efforts. A few have been spun out into start-up companies funded by venture capital and wealthy individuals. Although alternative approaches are less well studied, their proponents argue that they could provide a smaller, cheaper, and faster route to fusion energy production. This article will survey some of the current efforts and where they stand. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Fusion energy using tokamaks: can development be accelerated?’.

scholarly journals Direct-indirect mixture implosion in heavy ion fusion

2006 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 359-369 ◽  
Author(s):  
TETSUO SOMEYA ◽  
KENTAROU MIYAZAWA ◽  
TAKASHI KIKUCHI ◽  
SHIGEO KAWATA
Keyword(s):  
Inertial Confinement Fusion ◽  
Radiation Transport ◽  
Ion Beam ◽  
Fusion Energy ◽  
Heavy Ion ◽  
Inertial Confinement ◽  
Foam Layer ◽  
Lateral Direction ◽  
Confinement Fusion ◽  
Heavy Ion Fusion

In order to realize an effective implosion, the beam illumination non-uniformity and implosion non-uniformity must be suppressed to less than a few percent. In this paper, a direct-indirect mixture implosion mode is proposed and discussed in heavy ion beam (HIB) inertial confinement fusion (HIF) in order to release sufficient fusion energy in a robust manner. On the other hand, the HIB illumination non-uniformity depends strongly on a target displacement (dz) in a reactor. In a direct-driven implosion mode dz of ∼20 μm was tolerance and in an indirect-implosion mode dz of ∼100 μm was allowable. In the direct-indirect mixture mode target, a low-density foam layer is inserted, and radiation is confined in the foam layer. In the foam layer the radiation transport is expected in the lateral direction for the HIB illumination non-uniformity smoothing. Two-dimensional implosion simulations are performed and show that the HIB illumination non-uniformity is well smoothed. The simulation results present that a large pellet displacement of ∼300 μm is tolerable in order to obtain sufficient fusion energy in HIF.

Characterization of Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) Targets Using PIXE, RBS, and STIM Analysis

2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 1073-1079 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yongqiang Li ◽  
Xue Liu ◽  
Xinyi Li ◽  
Yiyang Liu ◽  
Yi Zheng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Inertial Confinement Fusion ◽  
Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry ◽  
Ion Beam ◽  
Laser Fusion ◽  
Inertial Confinement ◽  
Uniform Compression ◽  
Nuclear Microscopy ◽  
Confinement Fusion ◽  
Icf Target

AbstractQuality control of the inertial confinement fusion (ICF) target in the laser fusion program is vital to ensure that energy deposition from the lasers results in uniform compression and minimization of Rayleigh–Taylor instabilities. The technique of nuclear microscopy with ion beam analysis is a powerful method to provide characterization of ICF targets. Distribution of elements, depth profile, and density image of ICF targets can be identified by particle-induced X-ray emission, Rutherford backscattering spectrometry, and scanning transmission ion microscopy. We present examples of ICF target characterization by nuclear microscopy at Fudan University in order to demonstrate their potential impact in assessing target fabrication processes.

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