Plastic ablator ignition capsule design for the National Ignition Facility

Journal Article · Sat May 15 04:00:00 EDT 2010 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3403293· OSTI ID:21371131

Clark, Daniel S; Haan, Steven W; Hammel, Bruce A; Salmonson, Jay D; Callahan, Debra A; Town, Richard P. J. ^[1]

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1. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550 (United States)

The National Ignition Campaign, tasked with designing and fielding targets for fusion ignition experiments on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) [G. H. Miller, E. I. Moses, and C. R. Wuest, Nucl. Fusion 44, S228 (2004)], has carried forward three complementary target designs for the past several years: a beryllium ablator design, a plastic ablator design, and a high-density carbon or synthetic diamond design. This paper describes current simulations and design optimization to develop the plastic ablator capsule design as a candidate for the first ignition attempt on NIF. The trade-offs in capsule scale and laser energy that must be made to achieve a comparable ignition probability to that with beryllium are emphasized. Large numbers of one-dimensional simulations, meant to assess the statistical behavior of the target design, as well as two-dimensional simulations to assess the target's susceptibility to Rayleigh-Taylor growth are presented.

• OSTI ID: 21371131
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 17; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ABLATION
ALKALINE EARTH METALS
BERYLLIUM
CAPSULES
CARBON
CONTAINERS
DESIGN
DIAMONDS
ELEMENTS
INSTABILITY
MATERIALS
METALS
MINERALS
NONMETALS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC POLYMERS
PETROCHEMICALS
PETROLEUM PRODUCTS
PLASMA SIMULATION
PLASTICS
POLYMERS
RAYLEIGH-TAYLOR INSTABILITY
SIMULATION
SYNTHETIC MATERIALS
THERMONUCLEAR IGNITION
THERMONUCLEAR REACTORS
US NATIONAL IGNITION FACILITY