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Title: Indirect drive ignition at the National Ignition Facility

Journal Article · · Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion

This paper reviews scientific results from the pursuit of indirect drive ignition on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) and describes the program's forward looking research directions. In indirect drive on the NIF, laser beams heat an x-ray enclosure called a hohlraum that surrounds a spherical pellet. X-ray radiation ablates the surface of the pellet, imploding a thin shell of deuterium/tritium (DT) that must accelerate to high velocity (v > 350 km s–1) and compress by a factor of several thousand. Since 2009, substantial progress has been made in understanding the major challenges to ignition: Rayleigh Taylor (RT) instability seeded by target imperfections; and low-mode asymmetries in the hohlraum x-ray drive, exacerbated by laser-plasma instabilities (LPI). Requirements on velocity, symmetry, and compression have been demonstrated separately on the NIF but have not been achieved simultaneously. We now know that the RT instability, seeded mainly by the capsule support tent, severely degraded DT implosions from 2009–2012. Experiments using a 'high-foot' drive with demonstrated lower RT growth improved the thermonuclear yield by a factor of 10, resulting in yield amplification due to alpha particle heating by more than a factor of 2. Furthermore, large time dependent drive asymmetry in the LPI-dominated hohlraums remains unchanged, preventing further improvements. High fidelity 3D hydrodynamic calculations explain these results. Future research efforts focus on improved capsule mounting techniques and on hohlraums with little LPI and controllable symmetry. In parallel, we are pursuing improvements to the basic physics models used in the design codes through focused physics experiments.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-07NA27344; AC02-76SF00515
OSTI ID:
1341962
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1340601
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL-696077; TRN: US1701325
Journal Information:
Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, Vol. 59, Issue 1; ISSN 0741-3335
Publisher:
IOP ScienceCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 59 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Progress of indirect drive inertial confinement fusion in the United States journal July 2019
A viscous quantum hydrodynamics model based on dynamic density functional theory journal November 2017
Development of new platforms for hydrodynamic instability and asymmetry measurements in deceleration phase of indirectly driven implosions on NIF journal August 2018
The role of hot spot mix in the low-foot and high-foot implosions on the NIF journal May 2017
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