Progress toward high-gain laser fusion
A 1985-1986 Review of the US inertial confinement fusion program by the National Academy of Sciences concluded that five more years might be required to obtain enough data to determine the future course of the program. Since then, data from the Nova laser and from the Halite/Centurion program have resolved most of the outstanding problems identified by the NAS review. In particular, we now believe that we can produce a sufficiently uniform target; that we can keep the energy content in hot electrons and high-energy photons low enough (/approximately/1--10% of drive energy, depending on target design) and achieve enough pulse-shaping accuracy (/approximately/10%, with a dynamic range of 100:1) to keep the fuel on a near-Fermi-degenerate adiabat; that we can produce an /approximately/100-Mbar pressure pulse of sufficient uniformity (/approximately/1%), and can we control hydrodynamic instabilities so that the mix of the pusher into the hot spot is low enough to permit marginal ignition. These results are sufficiently encouraging that the US Department of Energy is planning to complete a 10-MJ laboratory microfusion facility to demonstrate high-gain ICF in the laboratory within a decade. 22 refs., 1 fig.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (USA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 6686429
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-98828; CONF-881056-5; ON: DE89002661
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 19. European conference on laser interaction with matter (ECLIM), Madrid, Spain, 3 Oct 1988; Other Information: Portions of this document are illegible in microfiche products
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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