The National Ignition Facility - Applications for Inertial Fusion Energy and High Energy Density Science

Conference · Thu Aug 12 04:00:00 EDT 1999

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0741-3335/41/12B/303· OSTI ID:791695

Campbell, E M ^[1]; Hogan, W J

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1. LLNL

Over the past several decades, significant and steady progress has been made in the development of fusion energy and its associated technology and in the understanding of the physics of high-temperature plasmas. While the demonstration of net fusion energy (fusion energy production exceeding that required to heat and confine the plasma) remains a task for the next millennia and while challenges remain, this progress has significantly increased confidence that the ultimate goal of societally acceptable (e.g. cost, safety, environmental considerations including waste disposal) central power production can be achieved. This progress has been shared by the two principal approaches to controlled thermonuclear fusion--magnetic confinement (MFE) and inertial confinement (ICF). ICF, the focus of this article, is complementary and symbiotic to MFE. As shown, ICF invokes spherical implosion of the fuel to achieve high density, pressures, and temperatures, inertially confining the plasma for times sufficient long (t {approx} 10{sup -10} sec) that {approx} 30% of the fuel undergoes thermonuclear fusion.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Defense Programs (DP) (US)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 791695
• Report Number(s): UCRL-JC-135355
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
CONFINEMENT
ENERGY DENSITY
IMPLOSIONS
INERTIAL CONFINEMENT
PHYSICS
PLASMA
PRODUCTION
SAFETY
THERMONUCLEAR REACTORS
US NATIONAL IGNITION FACILITY
WASTE DISPOSAL