Progress in heavy ion driven inertial fusion energy: From scaledexperiments to the integrated research experiment
The promise of inertial fusion energy driven by heavy ion beams requires the development of accelerators that produce ion currents ({approx}100s Amperesheam) and ion energies ({approx}1-10 GeV) that have not been achieved simultaneously in any existing accelerator. The high currents imply high generalized perveances, large tune depressions. and high space charge potentials of the beam center relative to the beam pipe. Many of the scientific issues associated with ion beams of high perveance and large tune depression have been addressed over the last two decades on scaled experiments at Lawrence Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, the University of Maryland, and elsewhere. The additional requirement of high space charge potential (or equivalently high line charge density) gives rise to effects (particularly the role of electrons in beam transport) which must be understood before proceeding to a large scale accelerator. The first phase of a new series of experiments in Heavy Ion Fusion Virtual National Laboratory (HIF VNL), the High Current Experiments (HCX), is now being constructed at LBNL. The mission of the HCX will be to transport beams with driver line charge density so as to investigate the physics of this regime, including constraints on the maximum radial filling factor of the beam through the pipe. This factor is important for determining both cost and reliability of a driver scale accelerator. The HCX will provide data for design of the next steps in the sequence of experiments leading to an inertial Fusion energy power plant. The focus of the program after the HCX will be on integration of all of the manipulations required for a driver. In the near term following HCX, an Integrated Beam Experiment (IBX) of the same general scale as the HCX is envisioned.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Director. Office of Science. Office of Fusion EnergySciences, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Princeton PlasmaPhysics Laboratory
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC02-05CH11231
- OSTI ID:
- 861343
- Report Number(s):
- LBNL-51358; HIFAN 1139; R&D Project: Z41003; BnR: AT5015031; TRN: US0600791
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 2001 Particle Accelerator Conference PAC,Chicago, IL, 06/18-22/2001
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Progress in Heavy Ion Driven Inertial Fusion Energy: From Scaled Experiments to the Integrated Research Experiment.
NDCX-II project commencing at LBNL