Thermonuclear ignition in inertial confinement fusion and comparison with magnetic confinement
- Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14623 (United States)
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550 (United States)
- Department of Engineering Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706 (United States)
- NRCN, Negev and Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva 84015 (Israel)
The physics of thermonuclear ignition in inertial confinement fusion (ICF) is presented in the familiar frame of a Lawson-type criterion. The product of the plasma pressure and confinement time Ptau for ICF is cast in terms of measurable parameters and its value is estimated for cryogenic implosions. An overall ignition parameter chi including pressure, confinement time, and temperature is derived to complement the product Ptau. A metric for performance assessment should include both chi and Ptau. The ignition parameter and the product Ptau are compared between inertial and magnetic-confinement fusion. It is found that cryogenic implosions on OMEGA[T. R. Boehly et al., Opt. Commun. 133, 495 (1997)] have achieved Ptauapprox1.5 atm s comparable to large tokamaks such as the Joint European Torus [P. H. Rebut and B. E. Keen, Fusion Technol. 11, 13 (1987)] where Ptauapprox1 atm s. Since OMEGA implosions are relatively cold (Tapprox2 keV), their overall ignition parameter chiapprox0.02-0.03 is approx5x lower than in JET (chiapprox0.13), where the average temperature is about 10 keV.
- OSTI ID:
- 21371224
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 17, Issue 5; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3380857; (c) 2010 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 1070-664X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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