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Inertial Confinement Fusion—Experimental Physics: Laser Drive

Other · · Encyclopedia of Nuclear Energy
 [1];  [2]
  1. Univ. of Rochester, NY (United States). Lab. for Laser Energetics; Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester
  2. Univ. of Rochester, NY (United States). Lab. for Laser Energetics
Laser-driven inertial confinement fusion creates a central hot-spot plasma by irradiating a spherical target containing a thermonuclear fuel layer of deuterium (D) and tritium (T) with temporally-shaped, high-intensity lasers or X rays. Inertial confinement fusion relies on the DT-fusion alpha particles depositing their energy in a hot-spot plasma, causing its temperature to rise sharply and a thermonuclear burn wave to propagate out through the surrounding cold, dense DT fuel, producing significantly more energy than was used to heat and compress the fuel. Alpha heating has been demonstrated and burning plasma (i.e., yield amplification due to alpha heating >3.5) is being explored with megajoule-scale lasers on the path to ignition (i.e., yield amplification due to alpha heating >20)
Research Organization:
Univ. of Rochester, NY (United States). Lab. for Laser Energetics
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
DOE Contract Number:
NA0003856
OSTI ID:
1968252
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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  • Campbell, E. M.; Sangster, T. C.; Goncharov, V. N.
  • Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Vol. 379, Issue 2189 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2020.0011
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