Burning plasma achieved in inertial fusion

Dataset · Wed Jun 08 04:00:00 EDT 2022

DOI:https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/5GIE3Y· OSTI ID:1888013

Zylstra, A. B. ^[1]; Hurricane, O. A.; Callahan, D. A.; Kritcher, A. L.; Ralph, J. E.; Robey, H. F.; Ross, J. S.; Young, C. V.; Baker, K. L.; Casey, D. T.; Döppner, T.; Divol, L.; Hohenberger, M.; Le Pape, S.; Pak, A.; Patel, P. K.; Tommasini, R.; Ali, S. J.; Amendt, P. A.; Atherton, L. J. ; Bachmann, B.; Bailey, D.; Benedetti, L. R.; Berzak Hopkins, L.; Betti, R.; Bhandarkar, S. D.; Biener, J.; Bionta, R. M.; Birge, N. W.; Bond, E. J.; Bradley, D. K.; Braun, T.; Briggs, T. M.; Bruhn, M. W.; Celliers, P. M.; Chang, B.; Chapman, T.; Chen, H.; Choate, C.; Christopherson, A. R.; Clark, D. S.; Crippen, J. W.; Dewald, E. L.; Dittrich, T. R.; Edwards, M. J.; Farmer, W. A.; Field, J. E.; Fittinghoff, D.; Frenje, J.; Gaffney, J.; Gatu Johnson, M.; Glenzer, S. H.; Grim, G. P.; Haan, S.; Hahn, K. D.; Hall, G. N.; Hammel, B. A.; Harte, J.; Hartouni, E.; Heebner, J. E.; Hernandez, V. J.; Herrmann, H.; Herrmann, M. C.; Hinkel, D. E.; Ho, D. D.; Holder, J. P.; Hsing, W. W.; Huang, H.; Humbird, K. D.; Izumi, N.; Jarrott, L. C.; Jeet, J.; Jones, O.; Kerbel, G. D.; Kerr, S. M.; Khan, S. F.; Kilkenny, J.; Kim, Y.; Kleinrath, H. Geppert; Kleinrath, V. Geppert; Kong, C.; Koning, J. M.; Kroll, J. J.; Kruse, M. K. G.; Kustowski, B.; Landen, O. L.; Langer, S.; Larson, D.; Lemos, N. C.; Lindl, J. D.; Ma, T.; MacDonald, M. J.; MacGowan, B. J.; Mackinnon, A. J.; MacLaren, S. A.; MacPhee, A. G.; Marinak, M. M.; Mariscal, D. A.; Marley, E. V.; Masse, L.; Meaney, K.; Meezan, N. B.; Michel, P. A.; Millot, M.; Milovich, J. L.; Moody, J. D.; Moore, A. S.; Morton, J. W.; Murphy, T.; Newman, K.; Di Nicola, J.-M. G.; Nikroo, A.; Nora, R.; Patel, M. V.; Pelz, L. J.; Peterson, J. L.; Ping, Y.; Pollock, B. B.; Ratledge, M.; Rice, N. G.; Rinderknecht, H.; Rosen, M.; Rubery, M. S.; Salmonson, J. D.; Sater, J.; Schiaffino, S.; Schlossberg, D. J.; Schneider, M. B.; Schroeder, C. R.; Scott, H. A.; Sepke, S. M.; Sequoia, K.; Sherlock, M. W.; Shin, S.; Smalyuk, V. A.; Spears, B. K.; Springer, P. T.; Stadermann, M.; Stoupin, S.; Strozzi, D. J.; Suter, L. J.; Thomas, C. A.; Town, R. P. J.; Tubman, E. R.; Trosseille, C.; Volegov, P. L.; Weber, C. R.; Widmann, K.; Wild, C.; Wilde, C. H.; Van Wonterghem, B. M.; Woods, D. T.; Woodworth, B. N.; Yamaguchi, M.; Yang, S. T.; Zimmerman, G. B.

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1. OSTI

The achievement of obtaining a burning plasma is a critical step toward self-sustaining fusion energy. A burning plasma is a fusion plasma where the alpha-particles created by the deuterium-tritium (DT) fusion reactions are the primary source of heating in the plasma, which is necessary to sustain and propagate the fusion reaction to enable high energy gain. After decades of fusion research, a burning plasma state has finally been achieved. Herein, we report upon the first burning-plasma experiments; this state was achieved using a strategy to increase the capsule spatial scale via two different implosion concepts, on the US National Ignition Facility. These experiments show energies from self-heating in excess of the mechanical work injected into the implosions satisfying several burning plasma metrics, the last experiment additionally shows that the fusion self-heating is greater than losses from radiation and heat conduction. These experiments triple the fusion yield performance and show significantly higher yield amplification from self-heating than prior results; remaining degradations can be reduced for even higher fusion performance.

• Research Organization: Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States). Plasma Science and Fusion Center; Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
• DOE Contract Number: NA0003868; AC52-07NA27344
• OSTI ID: 1888013
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY