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Record Energetics for an Inertial Fusion Implosion at NIF

Journal Article · · Physical Review Letters
Inertial confinement fusion seeks to create burning plasma conditions in a spherical capsule implosion, which requires efficiently absorbing the driver energy in the capsule, transferring that energy into kinetic energy of the imploding DT fuel and then into internal energy of the fuel at stagnation. In this work, we report new implosions conducted on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) with several improvements on recent work [Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 245003 (2018); Phys. Rev. E 102, 023210 (2020)]: larger capsules, thicker fuel layers to mitigate fuel-ablator mix, and new symmetry control via cross-beam energy transfer; at modest velocities, these experiments achieve record values for the implosion energetics figures of merit as well as fusion yield for a NIF experiment.
Research Organization:
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-07NA27344
OSTI ID:
1756741
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL--813558; 1021530
Journal Information:
Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 126; ISSN 0031-9007
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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