Fusion with highly spin polarized HD and D{sub 2}. Final report, December 14, 1991--June 30, 1993

Technical Report · Fri Dec 17 04:00:00 EST 1993

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/10133660· OSTI ID:10133660

Honig, A ^[1]; Letzring, S; Skupsky, S ^[2]

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1. Syracuse Univ., NY (United States). Dept. of Physics
2. Univ. of Rochester, NY (United States). Lab. for Laser Energetics

The experimental efforts over the past 5 years have been aimed at carrying out ICF shots with spin-polarized D fuel. The authors successfully prepared polarized D in HD, and solved the problems of loading target shells with their carefully prepared isotopic mixtures, polarizing them so that the D polarization remains metastably frozen-in for about half a day, and carrying out the various cold transfer requirements at Syracuse, where the target is prepared, and at Rochester, where the cold target is inserted into the OMEGA fusion chamber. A principal concern during this past year was overcoming difficulties encountered in maintaining the integrity of the fragile cold target during the multitude of cold-transfers required for the experiment. These difficulties arose from insufficient rigidity of the cold transfer systems, which were constrained to be of small diameter by the narrow central access bore of the dilution refrigerator, and were exacerbated by the multitude of required target shell manipulations between different environments, each with different coupling geometry, including target shell permeation, polarization, storage, transport, retrieval and insertion into OMEGA. The authors did solve all of these problems, and were able to position a cold, high density but unpolarized target with required precision in OMEGA. Upon shooting the accurately positioned unpolarized high density cold target, no neutron yield was observed. Inspection inside the OMEGA tank after the shot indicated the absence of neutron yield was due to mal-timing or insufficient retraction rate of OMEGA`s fast shroud mechanism, resulting in interception of at least 20 of the 24 laser beams by the faulty shroud. In spite of this, all elements of the complex experiment the authors originally undertook have been successfully demonstrated, and the cold retrieval concepts and methods they developed are being utilized on the ICF upgrades at Rochester and at Livermore.

• Research Organization: Syracuse Univ., NY (United States). Dept. of Physics
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: FG03-91SF18862
• OSTI ID: 10133660
• Report Number(s): DOE/SF/18862--T2; ON: DE94006209
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
700411
DEUTERIUM TARGET
FABRICATION
INERTIAL CONFINEMENT
INERTIAL CONFINEMENT DEVICES
LASER TARGETS
POLARIZED TARGETS
PROGRESS REPORT
TESTING