Shiva: the next step to fusion power
Some of the main features of the Shiva facility are pictured in color, including first the intricate steel latticework that supports the world's most powerful laser. Next the shiny target chamber is depicted, followed by shots of (1) the tubes that contain the intricate optics to direct and amplify the laser pulse, (2) the finely polished neodymium glass disks that yield photons that intensify the light beams, and (3) one of the amplifiers through which the beams flash. The Shiva scientists hope for ''scientific breakeven'', when the energy output from the fuel (hydrogen pellets) compressed to a hundred times the density of lead will equal the energy needed to fire the laser. It is pointed out, however, that Shiva's most likely fate is to become, in a few years, just another dot on the chart of advances of LASNEX (the computer code for laser fusion); Shiva is scheduled to be swallowed up as a component within an even larger laser, called Nova, which is supposed to be the final experimental facility before the big jump into fusion reactors. Nova will try to compress the fuel pellets to a density twenty times as great as that achieved by Shiva. Both temperature and density would exceed that of the sun's interior and approach that of the super-hot stars known as ''white dwarfs''.
- OSTI ID:
- 5174360
- Journal Information:
- Fortune; (United States), Vol. 97:2
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Diagnostics of Shiva Nova produced high yield thermonuclear events
Shiva laser-fusion facility
Related Subjects
POLICY AND ECONOMY
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
LASER FUSION REACTORS
SHIVA FACILITY
CONSTRUCTION
DESIGN
BREAKEVEN
NEODYMIUM LASERS
ENERGY BALANCE
LASERS
SOLID STATE LASERS
THERMONUCLEAR REACTORS
290600* - Energy Planning & Policy- Nuclear Energy
700208 - Fusion Power Plant Technology- Inertial Confinement Technology