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Mini-chamber, an advanced protection concept for NIF

Journal Article · · Fusion Technology
OSTI ID:447428
;  [1]
  1. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)

Inertial confinement fusion (ICF) target debris and ablated near-target materials pose the primary threat to the National Ignition Facility (NIF) final optics debris shields, as well as a major challenge in future inertial fusion energy (IFE) power plants. This work discusses a NIF `mini-chamber,` designed to mitigate the debris threat. Although the NIF base-line design protects against debris using a frost-protected target positioner and refractory first-wall coatings, the mini-chamber provides important flexibility in three areas: debris-shield protection from beyond-design basis shots (i.e. heavy hohlraums, special diagnostics, shields); fielding of large experiments with significant surface ablation; and studying key ablation and gas-dynamics issues for liquid-wall IFE power plants. Key mini-chamber modeling results are presented, followed by discussion of equipment requirements for fielding a NIF mini-chamber. 7 refs., 3 figs.

OSTI ID:
447428
Report Number(s):
CONF-9606116--
Journal Information:
Fusion Technology, Journal Name: Fusion Technology Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 30; ISSN 0748-1896; ISSN FUSTE8
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English