Adiabatic Quasi-Spherical Compressions Driven by Magnetic Pressure for Inertial Confinement Fusion
- Sandia National Laboratories
The magnetic implosion of a high-Z quasi-spherical shell filled with DT fuel by the 20-MA Z accelerator can heat the fuel to near-ignition temperature. The attainable implosion velocity on Z, 13-cm/{micro}s, is fast enough that thermal losses from the fuel to the shell are small. The high-Z shell traps radiation losses from the fuel, and the fuel reaches a high enough density to reabsorb the trapped radiation. The implosion is then nearly adiabatic. In this case the temperature of the fuel increases as the square of the convergence. The initial temperature of the fuel is set by the heating of an ion acoustic wave to be about 200-eV after a convergence of 4. To reach the ignition temperature of 5-keV an additional convergence of 5 is required. The implosion dynamics of the quasi-spherical implosion is modeled with the 2-D radiation hydrodynamic code LASNEX. LASNEX shows an 8-mm diameter quasi-spherical tungsten shell on Z driving 6-atmospheres of DT fuel nearly to ignition at 3.5-keV with a convergence of 20. The convergence is limited by mass flow along the surface of the quasi-spherical shell. With a convergence of 20 the final spot size is 400-{micro}m in diameter.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (US); Sandia National Labs., Livermore, CA (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- US Department of Energy (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-94AL85000
- OSTI ID:
- 771501
- Report Number(s):
- SAND2000-2654
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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