Radiochemistry: A versatile diagnostic for the NIF ignition campaign

Technical Report · Tue Jun 17 04:00:00 EDT 2008

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/945581· OSTI ID:945581

Stoyer, M A; Cerjan, C J; Moody, K J; Hoffman, R D; Bernstein, L A; Shaughnessy, D A

The purpose of this paper is to provide quick, clear, concise information about radiochemical diagnostics for the NIF program. Radiochemistry is perhaps the most versatile, flexible and dynamic of all nuclear diagnostics because it provides quantitative data on multiple capsule performance parameters such as mix, asymmetry of implosion, shell and fuel {rho}R, yield, neutron spectral information, high energy neutron information, fill tube jets, charged particle stopping, and the fission yield of the hohlraum by employing a variety of nuclear reactions on materials either present naturally in the capsule or specifically doped into the capsule. The choice and location of the doped material, together with the specific nuclear reaction used to produce a measurable product nuclide or ratio of nuclides, provides significant diagnostic information on the performance of the capsule during the experiment. The nature of the experiment, design of the capsule including fuel(s), and desired diagnostic information would dictate the radiochemical dopants used on any given shot--not all reactions would be possible nor monitored on any given experiment. Some of this diagnostic information is obtainable with other diagnostics, for example, the neutron yield is measured using Cu-activation pucks or nTOF. The unique niche of radiochemistry, for which few other measurements are currently planned, is the quantification of ablator/fuel mix. This diagnostic can supply complementary information on ablator {rho}R, asymmetry and unique information on mix--three of the four important concerns of the ignition campaign. This paper will not discuss the additional nuclear chemistry and physics possible by utilizing radiochemistry collection and similar nuclear reactions.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 945581
• Report Number(s): LLNL-TR-405043
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

38 RADIATION CHEMISTRY, RADIOCHEMISTRY, AND NUCLEAR CHEMISTRY
73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
ASYMMETRY
AVAILABILITY
CHARGED PARTICLES
DESIGN
DOPED MATERIALS
FISSION YIELD
IGNITION
ISOTOPES
NEUTRONS
NUCLEAR CHEMISTRY
NUCLEAR REACTIONS
PERFORMANCE
PHYSICS
RADIOCHEMISTRY