U.S. Department of EnergyOffice of Scientific and Technical Information
Inertial confinement fusion driver enhancements: Final focusing systems and compact heavy-ion driver designs
Abstract
Required elements of an inertial confinement fusion power plant are modeled and discussed. A detailed analysis of two critical elements of candidate drivers is done, and new component designs are proposed to increase the credibility and feasibility of each driver system. An analysis of neutron damage to the final elements of a laser focusing system is presented, and multilayer -- dielectric mirrors are shown to have damage lifetimes which axe too short to be useful in a commercial power plant. A new final-focusing system using grazing incidence metal mirrors to protect sensitive laser optics is designed and shown to be effective in extending the lifetime of the final focusing system. The reflectivities and damage limits of grazing incidence metal mirrors are examined in detail, and the required mirror sizes are shown to be compatible with the beam sizes and illumination geometries currently envisioned for laser drivers. A detailed design and analysis is also done for compact arrays of superconducting magnetic quadrupoles, which are needed in a multi-beam heavy-ion driver. The new array model is developed in more detail than some previous conceptual designs and models arrays which are more compact than arrays scaled from existing single -- quadrupole designs. Themore »
- Authors:
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 7285049
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-ID-107986
ON: DE92019906
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- Resource Type:
- Technical Report
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Thesis (Ph.D.)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY; ICF DEVICES; DESIGN; FINITE ELEMENT METHOD; FIRST WALL; FOCUSING; HEAVY ION FUSION REACTIONS; HYLIFE CONVERTER; INERTIAL CONFINEMENT; LASER FUSION REACTORS; QUADRUPOLES; SUPERCONDUCTING MAGNETS; CONFINEMENT; ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT; ELECTROMAGNETS; EQUIPMENT; MAGNETS; MULTIPOLES; NUCLEAR REACTIONS; NUMERICAL SOLUTION; PLASMA CONFINEMENT; SUPERCONDUCTING DEVICES; THERMONUCLEAR DEVICES; THERMONUCLEAR REACTOR WALLS; THERMONUCLEAR REACTORS; 700411* - Inertial Confinement Devices- (1992-)
Citation Formats
Bieri, R L. Inertial confinement fusion driver enhancements: Final focusing systems and compact heavy-ion driver designs. United States: N. p., 1991.
Web.
Bieri, R L. Inertial confinement fusion driver enhancements: Final focusing systems and compact heavy-ion driver designs. United States.
Bieri, R L. 1991.
"Inertial confinement fusion driver enhancements: Final focusing systems and compact heavy-ion driver designs". United States.
@article{osti_7285049,
title = {Inertial confinement fusion driver enhancements: Final focusing systems and compact heavy-ion driver designs},
author = {Bieri, R L},
abstractNote = {Required elements of an inertial confinement fusion power plant are modeled and discussed. A detailed analysis of two critical elements of candidate drivers is done, and new component designs are proposed to increase the credibility and feasibility of each driver system. An analysis of neutron damage to the final elements of a laser focusing system is presented, and multilayer -- dielectric mirrors are shown to have damage lifetimes which axe too short to be useful in a commercial power plant. A new final-focusing system using grazing incidence metal mirrors to protect sensitive laser optics is designed and shown to be effective in extending the lifetime of the final focusing system. The reflectivities and damage limits of grazing incidence metal mirrors are examined in detail, and the required mirror sizes are shown to be compatible with the beam sizes and illumination geometries currently envisioned for laser drivers. A detailed design and analysis is also done for compact arrays of superconducting magnetic quadrupoles, which are needed in a multi-beam heavy-ion driver. The new array model is developed in more detail than some previous conceptual designs and models arrays which are more compact than arrays scaled from existing single -- quadrupole designs. The improved integrated model for compact arrays is used to compare the effects of various quadrupole array design choices on the size and cost of a heavy-ion driver. Array design choices which significantly affect the cost of a heavy-ion driver include the choice of superconducting material and the thickness of the collar used to support the winding stresses. The effect of these array design choices on driver size and cost is examined and the array model is used to estimate driver cost savings and performance improvements attainable with aggressive quadrupole array designs with high-performance superconductors.},
doi = {},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/7285049},
journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Jul 17 00:00:00 EDT 1991},
month = {Wed Jul 17 00:00:00 EDT 1991}
}