Progress of Laser Fusion at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory H
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Progress of laser fusion at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory H. Ahlstrom To cite this version: H. Ahlstrom. Progress of laser fusion at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. Journal de Physique Col- loques, 1979, 40 (C7), pp.C7-97-C7-111. 10.1051/jphyscol:19797433. jpa-00219436 HAL Id: jpa-00219436 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/jpa-00219436 Submitted on 1 Jan 1979 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. JOURNAL DE PHYSIQUE Colloque C7, supplkment au no 7, Tome 40, Juillet 1979, page C7-97 Progress of laser fusion at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory H. G. Ahlstrom University of California, Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550, U.S.A. Rbume. - Durant les anntes prtcedentes nous avons fait des progrits importants vers la comprthension des phenomknes d'interaction laser-plasma grgce a de nouveaux systemes et techniques de diagnostics. Nous avons aussi mis en optration Shiva le plus complexe des systkmes laser du monde, et obtenu des donntes importantes sur le fonctionnement des cibles. Les experiences d'implosion avec le systkme Shiva ont produit des densitts au- dela de 100 fois la densite liquide du DT. L'importance de ce rtsultat provient du fait que nous avons dii sur- monter la ntcessitt d'une implosion a symttrie sphtrique et le probleme d'instabilites de Rayleigh-Taylor. I1 n'apparait pas que le futur nous rtserve d'obstacles majeurs pour obtenir les densites ntcessaires pour une reac- tion efficace avec des microcibles dans un reacteur a fusion. De plus, nous avons identifit un systeme laser qui pourrait &re utilist pour un reacteur fusion et nous avons initit un programme trks actif pour le developper. Notre cc Systems Studies Program w a aussi dtfini une configuration qui rtsout la plupart des problkmes majeurs poses par des reacteurs de fusion par laser. Ce n'est pas dire que nous avons trouve l'unique solution d'un reacteur de fusion par confinement inertiel, mais plut6t que nous proposons un systeme avantageux, qui peut &treutilise comme point de comparaison pour d'autres solutions dont les performances pourront &re jugtes par rapport B la chambre de rCaction Hylife. Nous avons donc bon espoir que la fusion par confinement inertiel sera un jour une source pratique d'knergie pour le monde. Abstract. - Inertial confinement fusion is the present and future source of energy in our universe. Derivatives, such as solar, geothermal, wind, and biomass are proposed as future substitutes for possible fuel sources. All of these possible sources of energy while they may be considered to be renewable do not fulfill the single most important criteria of being unlimited. Fuel reserves of more than 100 billion years are accepted as cr unlimited P. The understanding of fusion has many (( fathers n, Bethe, Teller and many others, it has also had proponents (too many to list) as the world's energy supply. This author hopes that this Program's efforts will contribute positively to the advance to the time when fusion energy will positively contribute to the energy supply for man- k~nd. Controlled fusion is judged by us to be the world's most challenging technological problem. The potential benefit to mankind of an unlimited source of energy and thus a higher standard of living make the acceptance of this challenge worth our while. There are many dedicated scientists working on controlled fusion to make this dream a reality. Magnetic and inertial fusion are in a horse race that must not be allowed to falter or to be cancelled. Fusion is the future of the world and one of these approaches to fusion is vital to our future generations. 1. Introduction. - The basic concept of laser fusion Program is to use lasers to demonstrate that these has been describe many times in the past [I]. Here conditions can be achieved and thus prove the scien- we can summarize it in a simple statement of two tific feasibility of laser fusion. requirements : fuel density times radius, pr, Over the past several years, since 1974 at the Law- 2 1 gm/cm2 and temperatures > 5 keV. The intense rence Livermore Laboratory, we have been pursuing focusing capability of the laser, loi4 to 10" W/cm2 is these goals using a series of neodymium glass lasers used to create a plasma at the surface of a spherical as the driving sources. In figure 1, we summarize pellet, the intense heating of the plasma by the laser our results and projections for the future in a chart provides the energy required to ablate the surface of where we plot the results as a function of the quality the pellet and compress the fuel to densities of a 1 000 of inertial confinement nz which corresponds to pr to 10 000 x liquid density of DT. The implosion pro- and the DT ion temperature. As seen in the figure, cess is tailored so that at peak compression the fuel our experiments began with Janus using a single also achieves a temperature of approximately 5 key. beam in 1974 at a p'ower of 0.2 TW. At that time we At these temperatures and densities and where we were able to achieve an nz of several times 10" and have provided a sufficient large pr, 3 1 g/cm2 we will approximately a 0.5 keV ion temperature. In 1975 achieve efficient burn. As pointed out in the past, with two beams from Janus and 0.4 TW, we were the reason for compressing the fuel is to achieve able to increase the fuel temperature to approximately pr -- 1 for pellet sizes which are sensible for fusion 2 keV with approximately the same value of nz. The reactors. Since pr -- C2I3,where Cis the compression, major importance of the result in 1975 was that we by compressing the fuel to 1 000 x liquid density, were able to use the fusion reactions to demonstrate we reduce the requirement on the radius of the pellet that the reactions produced were truly thermo- by a factor of 100. Thus the goal of the Laser Fusion nuclear [2]. By 1976 we had developed Argus at 4 TW Article published online by EDP Sciences and available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/jphyscol:19797433 C7-98 H. G. AHLSTROM parameters. We also plan to trade some of the final lo' fuel density for temperature in order to produce 10 a significant thermonuclear burn by achieving tempe- 1 ratures of 2 keV at these high densities. However, '6 lors 10-1 2 keV and 50 x liquid density will not be sufficient E to allow us to achieve self-trapping of the particles in g the fuel and therefore cause the particles to raise the 10-2 r temperature of the burning fuel. This boundary is called the ignition boundary and is not expected to be P 10'3 lo-= -* achieved until we have at least the first phase of the 0 Nova system. This system is presently scheduled for 1012 1 o-' completion in 1983 and the full Nova system [8, 91 which is expected .to produce break-even or greater 10'' lo-' will be ready in 1985. 0.1 1.0 10 im DT ion Pmperafuro. keV Fig. 1. - Laser fusion. Progress projections. 2. Fusion laser systems at LLL. - The Laser Fusion Program at Livermore has utilized four neodymium glass laser systems for the demonstration and had achieved ion temperatures of approximately of important milestones in laser fusion and, we are 10 keV. constructing the Nova system which will also be a This whole series of experiments was done with a neodymium glass laser system. The reader is referred type of target which is called an exploding pusher [3]. to papers from the Livermore Solid State Program The main idea in these experiments was to demonstrate which describe our laser systems : Janus a two beam, that the laser could be used to achieve the fusion 8.5 cm output aperture system [lo], Cyclops a single temperature conditions albeit at low fuel densities. beam, 20 cm output aperture system [Ill, Argus a This lower path shows that Shiva and Nova, the next two beam, 28 cm output aperture laser system [12], laser coming on-line, could continue with this type Shiva the twenty beam, 20 cm output aperture of target and achieve higher values of n7. However, system [7] and Nova [8] which has not yet been frozen this type of target with the energies available will not in a final design. achieve break-even and is not a viable candidate for All of these systems utilize rod amplifiers and disk a fusion reactor target. In 1976 we also began our amplifiers, Pockel's cells, Faraday rotators, and spatial first series of experiments moving away from the filters. The technology for these laser systems has exploding pusher concept in order to achieve high largely been developed at the Livennore Laboratory densities although at relatively low fuel temperatures by the Solid State Laser Program. However, the with current laser systems [4]. By 1978 with Argus manufacturing of the parts, fabrication of the glass, at 2 kJ, we had achieved 10 x liquid density and the finishing of the glass, and the coatings are all done early in 1979 with Shiva at 8 kJ we had achieved in industry primarily in the United States but also in 100 x liquid density.