The US inertial confinement fusion (ICF) ignition programme and the inertial fusion energy (IFE) programme

2003 ◽  
Vol 45 (12A) ◽  
pp. A217-A234 ◽  
Author(s):  
J D Lindl ◽  
B A Hammel ◽  
B Grant Logan ◽  
David D Meyerhofer ◽  
S A Payne ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Inertial Confinement Fusion ◽  
Fusion Energy ◽  
Inertial Fusion ◽  
Inertial Fusion Energy ◽  
Inertial Confinement ◽  
The Us ◽  
Confinement Fusion

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)’.

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

2020 ◽  
Vol 379 (2189) ◽  
pp. 20200028
Author(s):  
Peter A. Norreys ◽  
Christopher Ridgers ◽  
Kate Lancaster ◽  
Mark Koepke ◽  
George Tynan
Keyword(s):  
Inertial Confinement Fusion ◽  
Fusion Energy ◽  
Electrical Power ◽  
High Gain ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Inertial Fusion ◽  
Inertial Fusion Energy ◽  
Inertial Confinement ◽  
Fusion Research ◽  
Confinement Fusion

Part II of this special edition contains the remaining 11 papers arising from a Hooke discussion meeting held in March 2020 devoted to exploring the current status of inertial confinement fusion research worldwide and its application to electrical power generation in the future, via the development of an international inertial fusion energy programme. It builds upon increased coordination within Europe over the past decade by researchers supported by the EUROFusion Enabling Research grants, as well as collaborations that have arisen naturally with some of America's and Asia's leading researchers, both in the universities and national laboratories. The articles are devoted to informing an update to the European roadmap for an inertial fusion energy demonstration reactor, building upon the commonalities between the magnetic and inertial fusion communities’ approaches to fusion energy. A number of studies devoted to understanding the physics barriers to ignition on current facilities are then presented. The special issue concludes with four state-of-the-art articles describing recent significant advances in fast ignition inertial fusion research. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Prospects for high gain inertial fusion energy (part 2)’.

scholarly journals Motivation and fabrication methods for inertial confinement fusion and inertial fusion energy targets

2003 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 505-509 ◽  
Author(s):  
N.G. BORISENKO ◽  
A.A. AKUNETS ◽  
V.S. BUSHUEV ◽  
V.M. DOROGOTOVTSEV ◽  
Yu.A. MERKULIEV
Keyword(s):  
Energy Conversion ◽  
High Power ◽  
Inertial Confinement Fusion ◽  
Fusion Energy ◽  
Inertial Fusion ◽  
Inertial Fusion Energy ◽  
Inertial Confinement ◽  
X Rays ◽  
Confinement Fusion ◽  
Fusion Target

Popular target designs are reviewed. Possible methods of fusion target fabrication are discussed and the equipment and samples are demonstrated. The properties of the uniform and structured (cluster) materials are considered, showing the advantage of cluster material for energy conversion into soft X rays. The target materials with high content of hydrogen isotopes (BeD2, LiBeD3, or ND3BD3) prove to be more effective for high-power drivers in comparison with beryllium or polyimide.

Inertial Confinement Fusion Program at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory: The National Ignition Facility, Inertial Fusion Energy, 100–1000 TW Lasers, and the Fast Igniter Concept

1997 ◽  
Vol 06 (04) ◽  
pp. 507-533
Author(s):  
W. Howard Lowdermilk
Keyword(s):  
Inertial Confinement Fusion ◽  
Peak Power ◽  
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory ◽  
Fusion Energy ◽  
National Laboratory ◽  
Inertial Fusion ◽  
Inertial Fusion Energy ◽  
Inertial Confinement ◽  
National Ignition Facility ◽  
Confinement Fusion

The ultimate goal of worldwide research in inertial confinement fusion (ICF) is to develop fusion as an inexhaustible, economic, environmentally safe source of electric power. Following nearly thirty years of laboratory and underground fusion experiments, the next step toward this goal is to demonstrate ignition and propagating burn of fusion fuel in the laboratory. The National Ignition Facility (NIF) Project is being constructed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) for just this purpose. NIF will use advanced Nd-glass laser technology to deliver 1.8 MJ of 0.35 μm laser light in a shaped pulse, several nanoseconds in duration, achieving a peak power of 500 TW. A national community of U.S. laboratories is participating in this project, now in its final design phase. France and the United Kingdom are collaborating on development of required technology under bilateral agreements with the US. This paper presents key aspects of the laser design, and descriptions of principal laser and optical components. Follow-on development of lasers to meet the demands of an inertial fusion energy (IFE) power plant is reviewed. In parallel with the NIF Project and IFE developments, work is proceeding on ultrashort pulse lasers with peak power in the range of 100–1000 TW. A beamline on the Nova laser at LLNL recently delivered nearly 600 J of 1 μm light in a 0.5 ps duration pulse, for a peak power in excess of a petawatt (1015 W). This beamline, with advanced adaptive optics, will be capable of focused intensities in excess of 1021 W/cm2. Its primary purpose will be to test technological and scientific aspects of an alternate ignition concept, called the "Fast Igniter", that has the potential to produce higher fusion gain than conventional ICF.

scholarly journals Perspectives of laser inertial fusion energy in Japan

1999 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHIYOE YAMANAKA
Keyword(s):  
International Collaboration ◽  
Inertial Confinement Fusion ◽  
Recent Progress ◽  
Fusion Energy ◽  
Inertial Fusion ◽  
Inertial Fusion Energy ◽  
Inertial Confinement ◽  
Fusion Ignition ◽  
Confinement Fusion ◽  
Near Future

The inertial confinement fusion (ICF) research has remarkably developed in the last 10 years, which enables us to scope the fusion ignition and burn in the near future. Following the recent progress in the ICF, the perspectives of the inertial fusion energy (IFE) are presented. International collaboration is highly expected.

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.

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.

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