Status and plans of the united states ICF programMatzen, M K
doi: 10.1088/1742-6596/112/1/012001pmid: N/A
Inertial confinement fusion research in the United States focuses on demonstrating ignition on the NIF at the beginning of the next decade and on broad high energy density science (HEDS) research. Three facilities (OMEGA EP, the refurbished Z, and NIF) will be completed in the next two years. The US approach emphasizes lasers and pulsed power and both direct and indirect drive. Since IFSA 2005 in Biarritz, France significant advances have been made towards demonstrating ignition in a joint effort by LLNL, LLE, LANL, SNL, and GA. An active HEDS research program will also be pursued on these new facilities.
The FIREX program on the way to inertial fusion energyAzechi, H; Project, FIREX
doi: 10.1088/1742-6596/112/1/012002pmid: N/A
Thermonuclear ignition and subsequent burn are key physics for achieving laser fusion. Laboratory ignition with very large laser systems is now anticipated with the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in the US and Laser Mega Joule (LMJ) in France. Fast ignition has a potential to achieve ignition and burn with about one tenth of laser energy required for these programs. With the fast ignition, the fuel compression and heating are separated, with ignition initiated by a short very high power laser pulse incident on the already compressed fuel. The fast heating of a compressed core, together with high-density compression, has provided the scientific basis for the start of the Fast Ignition Realization EXperiment (FIREX) project. The goal of the first phase (FIREX-I) is to demonstrate ignition temperature of 510 keV, followed by the second phase to demonstrate ignition and burn. Coupled with the achievement of central ignition on NIF and LMJ, the research focus would then move to the demonstrations of high gain and of the inertial fusion energy technology. These programs would converge onto a laser fusion test reactor that can deliver net electric power by 2030. We would expect the test reactor program as a truly international activity.
Ignition on the National Ignition FacilityMoses, E I
doi: 10.1088/1742-6596/112/1/012003pmid: N/A
The National Ignition Facility (NIF), the world's largest and most powerful laser system for inertial confinement fusion (ICF) and experiments studying high energy density (HED) science, is nearing completion at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). NIF is a 192-beam Nd-glass laser facility that will produce 1.8 MJ, 500 TW of ultraviolet light, making it over fifty times more energetic than present ICF facilities. The NIF Project, begun in 1995, is over 90% complete and is scheduled for completion in 2009. The building and the entire beam path have been completed. The Project is presently installing the optics and electronics to build out the beams and is commissioning them in the laser bays. By September 2007, all of the lasers in one of the two laser bays will be commissioned with the capability of producing over 2 MJ of 1 (1.05 m) light, making NIF the world's first mega Joule laser system. A year later, the laser system will be essentially complete. Experiments using one beam in the Precision Diagnostic System (PDS) have shown that NIF can meet all of its 3 light performance goals including energy, power, focusing, and shot rate and has the precision and accuracy required for ignition pulse performance. The plan is to have half of the beams commissioned to the target chamber in a symmetric geometry to begin 96-beam symmetric indirect-drive experiments. These first ICF experiments using more than 200 kJ of 3 light will have an order of magnitude more energy than presently available and represent the beginning of experiments preparing for ignition. This national effort for ignition experiments is coordinated through a detailed plan called the National Ignition Campaign (NIC) that includes the science, technology, and equipment such as diagnostics, cryogenic target manipulator, and user optics required for ignition experiments. The goal is to have all of the equipment operational and integrated into the facility soon after Project completion to begin ignition experiments in 2010. In addition, experiments will begin to investigate HED science for defense and basic science applications. With over 50 times more energy than present facilities and the ability to produce ignition, NIF will explore new physics regimes. Following project completion in 2009, facility time at NIF will be allocated to the broad user community using the process outlined in a formal governance plan. A NIF User Office has been established to coordinate use of NIF by the national security and other user communities.
Fusion with the megajoule laserBesnard, D
doi: 10.1088/1742-6596/112/1/012004pmid: N/A
Achieving fusion with LMJ requires a coordinated program associating the facility itself, and associated targets. New results obtained since the last IFSA conference are presented, starting from the facility itself (including operations), moving to cryogenic targets, on to plasma diagnostics. We identified high yield fusion capsules that require no more that 1.4 MJ of laser energy, offering new opportunities for operating LMJ. The corresponding experimental path to fusion is described and commented.
Impact of fast ignition on laser fusion energy developmentMima, K
doi: 10.1088/1742-6596/112/1/012005pmid: N/A
Reviewed are the early history of Japanese laser fusion research and the recent achievement of fast ignition research at Institute of Laser Engineering (ILE), Osaka University. After the achievement of high density compression at Osaka University, LLE of University Rochester, and LLNL, the critical issue of Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) research became the formation of hot spark in a compressed plasma. In this lecture, the history of the fast ignition research will be reviewed and future prospects are presented.
The early years of indirect drive development for high energy density physics experiments at AWEThomas, B
doi: 10.1088/1742-6596/112/1/012006pmid: N/A
The importance of laser driven indirect drive for high energy density physics experiments was recognised at AWE in 1971. The two beam 1TW HELEN laser was procured to work in this area and experiments with this system began in 1980. Early experiments in hohlraum coupling and performance scaling with both 1.06m and 0.53m will be described together with experiments specifically designed to confirm the understanding of radiation wave propagation, hohlraum heating and hohlraum plasma filling. The use of indirect drive for early experiments to study spherical and cylindrical implosions, opacity, EOS, mix and planar radiation hydrodynamics experiments will also be described.