DOCSLIB.ORG

A Tutorial on Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF): Progress and Challenges

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Tutorial on Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF): Progress and Challenges A tutorial on Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF): progress and challenges An attractive path to ICF that could lead to a practical fusion energy source MIT Club of Washington DC 25 May 2015 Presented by Steve Obenschain Laser Plasma Branch Plasma Physics Division U.S. Naval Research Laboratory Work supported by DOE-NNSA The Naval Research Laboratory Navy’s Corporate Research Laboratory 2320 Federal employees/ 849 PhDs / $1.056B/yr Advocated by Thomas Edison (1915) Established by act of Congress in 1916 Startup in 1923 me NRL Pioneered many advances: .U.S. Radar (starting in early 1920’s) NRL developed radars “contributed to the victories of the U.S. Navy in the battles of the Coral Sea, Midway, and Guadalcanal.” .GPS .Vanguard rocket and scientific package (2nd U.S. satellite) .1st reconnaissance satellite Under cover of scientific research: Galactic Radiation and Background (GRAB) satellite system. NRL has a vigorous program in energy R&D “The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) consumed 889 trillion BTU of energy in FY08…..Although this is less than 1.5% of overall U.S. usage, it makes the DoD the single largest energy user in the country.” Energy Sources • Laser Fusion • Methane Hydrates Energy Storage • Nanoscale Electrode Materials for Batteries Energy Conversion • Photovoltaics Power Delivery • Superconductors Fusion powers the visible Universe.. Can it provide clean plentiful energy on earth?5 Nuclear Fusion -- the basics need 100 million oC neutron - n Deuterium - D + confinement + Energy + + Fusion + Tritium - T Reaction Helium - He4 D + T He4 ( 3.45 MeV) + neutron (14.1 MeV) this is the easiest fusion reaction to achieve So what's so good about nuclear fusion as potential energy source? •Plentiful fuel – Deuterium: from seawater • Enough for billions of years! – Tritium: bred from lithium • Enough readily available lithium for 1000’s of years. • Operation does not make greenhouse gasses • Attractive advanced approach to nuclear energy – Limited, controllable radioactive waste – Could provide a good fraction of worldwide need for base-load electrical power. Magnetic Fusion Energy effort is centered on ITER • First DT burn scheduled for ~2030 • 500MW fusion thermal power in ~15 min. pulses by ~2034. • To be followed by DEMO a high availability power reactor. From http://www.iter.org/default.aspx Basic principles of inertial confinement fusion Deuterium Tritium plasma • Temperature T (~10 keV) r Expansion velocity (v) ≈ (kT)1/2 v 2 • Density ρ Reaction rate = ρ RDT(T) Plasma Available time t =r/v • Radius r • Expansion velocity V We need a large fraction of the DT fuel to burn before it expands. 2 Fraction burned ≈ ρ x RDT (T) x t /ρ ≈ ρr x RDT (T)/v(T) Large ρr allows large % of fuel to burn But energy required and released scales as the mass - 4/3πρr3 Need to maximize the density ρ (~1000x solid density) Inertial Fusion (via central ignition) Lasers or x-rays heat outside Central portion of DT Thermonuclear burn of pellet, ~100 Mbar (spark plug) is heated then propagates pressure implodes fuel to to ignition. outward to the velocities of 300 km/sec compressed DT fuel. (~100 Gbar, ~108 oC) Hot Cold ablator fuel fuel ~ 2 to 4 mm DT ice foot drive ~ 3% of original target diamter • Simple concept Laser • Potential for very high energy gains (>100) Power • Requires high precision in physics & systems time • Need to understand & mitigate instabilities A heavy fluid supported by a lighter fluid is subject to Rayleigh-Taylor Instability Example: A glass of water turned upside down.. Before During After Glass of water (Heavy Fluid) Air (Light Fluid) An ICF pellet has a Rayleigh Taylor (RT) Instability: Pressure from the low density ablated material accelerates the high density shell. t0 target laser (section of shell) t1 = t0 + Accelerated & compressed k t laser Ak (t) = Ako e "Fuel" ablated Mitigation of RT: material A Minimize Ao (from target and drive imperfections) Reduce ( t) Laser-plasma instabilities that can scatter the laser light (a loss mechanism) or produce high-energy electrons that heat the fuel too early and thereby reduce compression. DOE’s National Security Administration (NNSA) funds ICF research as part of its stockpile stewardship program National Ignition Facility Z pulsed power facility Lawrence Livermore National Lab. Sandia National Lab OMEGA Laser Facility Nike KrF Laser Facility University of Rochester, LLE Naval Research Laboratory NIF concentrates the energy from 192 laser beams energy in a football stadium-sized facility onto few-mm-size targets. Matter temperature >108 K Radiation temperature >3.5 x 106 K Densities >103 g/cm3 Pressures >1011 atm 15 Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Pxxxxxx.ppt – Edwards, NRL, 3/18/15 NIF utilizes flashlamp pumped Nd:glass amplifiers Near infrared λ = 1054 nm light from Nd:glass is frequency tripled to UV and directed to target Nd:glass amplifier Accommodates 8 30-cm 1 of 192 beams aperture beams https://str.llnl.gov/str/Powell.html 16 OFFICIAL USE ONLY NIF Laser Bay (1 of 2) OFFICIAL USE ONLY 2013-049951s2.ppt 17 PhotoshoppedNIF 6-m diameter target target chamber bay all floors 2013-043921s1.ppt Moses - IFSA, 9/9/13 18 OFFICIAL USE ONLY OFFICIAL USE ONLY 2013-043921s1.ppt Moses - IFSA, 9/9/13 19 Indirect Laser Drive (approach chosen for NIF) Laser beams heat wall of a gold hollow cylinder (hohlraum) to ~300 eV and resulting soft x-rays drive the capsule implosion. Illustration from https://lasers.llnl.gov/programs/nic/icf/ The Challenge — near spherical implosion by ~35X 195 µm DT shot N120716 Bang Time (less than diameter of human hair) ~2 mm diameter 21 Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Pxxxxxx.ppt – Edwards, NRL, 3/18/15 The NIF indirect drive effort has greatly advanced the physics understanding of that approach Hohlraum Backscatter performance Capsule shape Spectrum LEH size Wall motion In-fight instability Stagnation Plasma conditions DT hot spot shape Streak Trajectory 3D R Shocks Picket drive symmetry time time 1D But NIF so far has not achieved ignition with indirect drive, there is another way – laser direct drive Indirect Drive • Relaxed laser uniformity requirements Hohlraum Capsule • Higher mass ablation rate inhibits hydro-instability. Laser • Less efficient illumination of target Beams • More complex physics • More challenging diagnostic access x-rays Direct Drive • Much more efficient (7 to 9 x) use of laser light. Capsule • Simpler physics • Much higher predicted performance (gain) • Simpler target fabrication • Advances in lasers (beam smoothing) and target designs should provide needed Laser Beams implosion symmetry. Two developments that help enable symmetric direct drive implosions. 1980’s Development & use controlled laser spatial incoherence to achieve time-averaged smooth laser profiles on target. Random Phase Plates – RPP (ILE, Japan) Induced Spatial Incoherence – ISI (NRL) Smoothing by Spectral Dispersion – SSD (LLE) 4 Laser intensity log scale Late 1990’s – Development of “tailored adiabats’ to reduce Rayleigh Taylor instability at the ablation layer while maintaining high fuel density. ablator preheated ablator (lower density) DT ice DT ice • Larger ablation velocity (VA= {mass ablation rate}/) suppresses RT instability. • Can be accomplished via decaying shocks or soft x-ray preheat. NRL is the world leader in high-energy electron-beam pumped krypton fluoride (KrF) lasers Nike 60-cm aperture amplifier • Gas laser verses solid-state Nd:glass used in NIF (easier to cool) • Electron beam pump versus flashlamp light with glass • Operates in deeper UV • 56 beams extract energy with Nike (more beams & fewer amplifiers than with glass) Use of KrF light has many advantages for direct drive Provides the deepest UV light of all ICF lasers (λ=248 nm) • Inhibits undesired laser-plasma instability Deeper UV • Higher efficiency implosions. • Less laser energy required to obtain ignition and high yield • Much more uniform target illumination. • Focal zooming that is desired to increase Superior beam efficiency, and that is likely required to smoothing avoid deleterious cross-beam-energy transport. Early time Nike zoomed focus Late time Nike focal profile Shock Ignited (SI) direct drive targets Pellet shell is accelerated to sub-ignition velocity (<300 km/sec), and ignited by a converging shock produced by high intensity spike in the laser pulse. Low aspect ratio pellet helps mitigate hydro instability Peak main drive is 1 to 2 × 1015 W/cm2 Igniter pulse is ~1016 W/cm2 * R. Betti et al., Phys.Rev.Lett. 98, 155001 (2007) High gain is obtained with both KrF (λ=248 nm) and frequency tripled Nd:glass (λ=351 nm) lasers with direct drive shock ignited targets with focal zoom. “Shock Ignition” Direct Drive (248 nm)* “Shock Ignition” Direct Drive (351 nm)* “Shock Ignition” Direct Drive (351 nm) No zoom * 2 focal diameter zooms during implosion Simulations predict ignition and high energy gain with a 529 kJ KrF direct drive implosion (1/3 of NIF’s energy) Snapshots of high resolution 2-D simulation of implosion Simulation shows growth of Initial pellet instability seeded by target imperfections 2 mm 138 x energy gain Imploded pellet (magnified scale) 0.4 mm 0.2 mm 0.1 mm The target has to release enough energy to power the reactor… AND produce electricity for the grid Target "Gain" = Fusion power OUT / laser power IN (Nuclear reactions in chamber “blanket” add 1.1× to target gain) Target 1,430 Megawatts 572 Megawatts Gain = 130x (heat) ( electricity) Electricity Generator (40%) 430 Megawatts 143 Megawatts Power Lines KrF Laser (7% efficient)
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Next Generation of Fusion Energy Research
    THE NEXT GENERATION OF FUSION ENERGY RESEARCH HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION OCTOBER 29, 2009 Serial No. 111–61 Printed for the use of the Committee on Science and Technology ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.science.house.gov U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 52–894PDF WASHINGTON : 2010 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY HON. BART GORDON, Tennessee, Chair JERRY F. COSTELLO, Illinois RALPH M. HALL, Texas EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON, Texas F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER JR., LYNN C. WOOLSEY, California Wisconsin DAVID WU, Oregon LAMAR S. SMITH, Texas BRIAN BAIRD, Washington DANA ROHRABACHER, California BRAD MILLER, North Carolina ROSCOE G. BARTLETT, Maryland DANIEL LIPINSKI, Illinois VERNON J. EHLERS, Michigan GABRIELLE GIFFORDS, Arizona FRANK D. LUCAS, Oklahoma DONNA F. EDWARDS, Maryland JUDY BIGGERT, Illinois MARCIA L. FUDGE, Ohio W. TODD AKIN, Missouri BEN R. LUJA´ N, New Mexico RANDY NEUGEBAUER, Texas PAUL D. TONKO, New York BOB INGLIS, South Carolina PARKER GRIFFITH, Alabama MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas STEVEN R. ROTHMAN, New Jersey MARIO DIAZ-BALART, Florida JIM MATHESON, Utah BRIAN P. BILBRAY, California LINCOLN DAVIS, Tennessee ADRIAN SMITH, Nebraska BEN CHANDLER, Kentucky PAUL C. BROUN, Georgia RUSS CARNAHAN, Missouri PETE OLSON, Texas BARON P. HILL, Indiana HARRY E. MITCHELL, Arizona CHARLES A. WILSON, Ohio KATHLEEN DAHLKEMPER, Pennsylvania ALAN GRAYSON, Florida SUZANNE M.
    [Show full text]
  • Footnotes for ATOMIC ADVENTURES
    Footnotes for ATOMIC ADVENTURES Secret Islands, Forgotten N-Rays, and Isotopic Murder - A Journey into the Wild World of Nuclear Science By James Mahaffey While writing ATOMIC ADVENTURES, I tried to be careful not to venture off into subplots, however interesting they seemed to me, and keep the story flowing and progressing at the right tempo. Some subjects were too fascinating to leave alone, and there were bits of further information that I just could not abandon. The result is many footnotes at the bottom of pages, available to the reader to absorb at his or her discretion. To get the full load of information from this book, one needs to read the footnotes. Some may seem trivia, but some are clarifying and instructive. This scheme works adequately for a printed book, but not so well with an otherwise expertly read audio version. Some footnotes are short enough to be inserted into the audio stream, but some are a rambling half page of dense information. I was very pleased when Blackstone Audio agreed wholeheartedly that we needed to include all of my footnotes in this version of ATOMIC ADVENTURES, and we came up with this added feature: All 231 footnotes in this included text, plus all the photos and explanatory diagrams that were included in the text. I hope you enjoy reading some footnotes while listening to Keith Sellon-Wright tell the stories in ATOMIC ADVENTURES. James Mahaffey April 2017 2 Author’s Note Stories Told at Night around the Glow of the Reactor Always striving to beat the Atlanta Theater over on Edgewood Avenue, the Forsyth Theater was pleased to snag a one-week engagement of the world famous Harry Houdini, extraordinary magician and escape artist, starting April 19, 1915.1 It was issued an operating license, no.
    [Show full text]
  • A Fusion Test Facility for Inertial Fusion
    A Fusion Test Facility for Inertial Fusion The Fusion Test Facility would be part of an integrated IFE program where the essential elements are developed and implemented as systems in progressively more capable IFE oriented facilities. Fusion Test Facility (FTF) Direct laser drive Sub-megaJoule laser energy Goal of ~150 MW fusion power High flux neutron source Development path to a power plant Presented by Stephen Obenschain U.S. Naval Research Laboratory September 27 2006 Fusion Power Associates Meeting Introduction The scientific underpinnings for ICF has and is being developed via large single shot facilities. The IFE application, while greatly benefiting from this effort, requires a different and broader perspective. • Development of sufficiently efficient and durable high repetition rate drivers. • High gain target designs consistent with the energy application. • Development of economical mass production techniques for targets. • Precision target injection, tracking & laser beam steering. • Reaction chamber design and materials for a harsh environment. • Operating procedures (synchronizing a complex high duty cycle operation) • Overall economics, development time and costs. Individual IFE elements have conflicts in their optimization, and have to be developed in concert with their own purpose-built facilities. HAPL= $25M/yr High Average Power Laser program administered by NNSA See presentations by John Sethian and John Caird this afternoon. Typical GW (electrical )designs have >3 MJ laser drivers @ 5-10 Hz Target Factory Electricity
    [Show full text]
  • Part 1: April 24, 2007 Presentations
    UCRL-MI-231268 IFE Science and Technology Strategic Planning Workshop - Part 1: April 24, 2007 Presentations To select an individual presentation, click the table of contents entry on the next page or click the title on the agenda for Day 1 (using the Hand Tool icon). To save only a portion of this document, go to File/Print, select Adobe PDF as your printer, specify the desired range of pages, and save to a new file name. This document was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor the University of California nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or the University of California. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or the University of California, and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes. Portions of this work performed under the auspices of the U. S. Department of Energy by University of California Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract W-7405-Eng-48. Part 1 Contents Agenda ........................................................................................................................................ 3 Presentations 1. Welcome and Perspectives, Ed Synakowski, LLNL............................................................
    [Show full text]
  • NRL Nike Laser Focuses on Nuclear Fusion 20 March 2013
    NRL Nike Laser focuses on nuclear fusion 20 March 2013 concept, numerous laser beams are used to implode and compress a pea-sized pellet of deuterium-tritium (D-T) to extreme density and temperature, causing the atoms to fuse, resulting in the release of excess energy. In an ICF implosion, a progressively diminishing portion of the beams will engage the shrinking pellet if the focal spot diameter of the laser remains unchanged. For optimal coupling, it becomes desirable to decrease the laser focal spot size to match the reduction in the pellet's diameter, minimizing wasted energy. This is the Nike Laser -- focal zooming. Credit: U.S. "Matching the focal spot size to the pellet Naval Research Laboratory throughout the implosion process maximizes the on- target laser energy," Kehne said. "This experiment validates the engineering of focal zooming in KrF lasers to track the size of an imploding pellet in Researchers at the U.S. Naval Research inertial confinement fusion." Laboratory have successfully demonstrated pulse tailoring, producing a time varying focal spot size With single-step focal zooming implemented, the known as 'focal zooming' on the world's largest Nike laser provides independent control of pulse operating krypton fluoride (KrF) gas laser. shape, time of arrival, and focal diameter allowing greater flexibility in the profiles and pulse shapes The Nike laser is a two to three kilojoule (kJ) KrF that can be produced. The flexibility in pulse system that incorporates beam smoothing by shaping provides promising uses in both future induced spatial incoherence (ISI) to achieve one experiments and laser diagnosis.
    [Show full text]
  • 108–650 Senate Hearings Before the Committee on Appropriations
    S. HRG. 108–650 Senate Hearings Before the Committee on Appropriations Energy and Water Development Appropriations Fiscal Year 2005 108th CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION H.R. 4614 DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE—CIVIL DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NONDEPARTMENTAL WITNESSES Energy and Water Development Appropriations, 2005 (H.R. 4614) S. HRG. 108–650 ENERGY AND WATER DEVELOPMENT APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2005 HEARINGS BEFORE A SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED EIGHTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION ON H.R. 4614 AN ACT MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FOR ENERGY AND WATER DEVELOP- MENT FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2005, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES Department of Defense—Civil Department of Energy Department of the Interior Nondepartmental witnesses Printed for the use of the Committee on Appropriations ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/senate U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 92–143 PDF WASHINGTON : 2005 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2250 Mail: Stop SSOP, Washington, DC 20402–0001 COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS TED STEVENS, Alaska, Chairman THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii PETE V. DOMENICI, New Mexico ERNEST F. HOLLINGS, South Carolina CHRISTOPHER S. BOND, Missouri PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont MITCH MCCONNELL, Kentucky TOM HARKIN, Iowa CONRAD BURNS, Montana BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, Maryland RICHARD C. SHELBY, Alabama HARRY REID, Nevada JUDD GREGG, New Hampshire HERB KOHL, Wisconsin ROBERT F. BENNETT, Utah PATTY MURRAY, Washington BEN NIGHTHORSE CAMPBELL, Colorado BYRON L.
    [Show full text]
  • Prevent, Counter, and Respond—A Strategic Plan to Reduce Global Nuclear Threats
    Prevent, Counter, and Respond—A Strategic Plan to Reduce Global Nuclear Threats FY 2018–FY 2022 Report to Congress November 2017 National Nuclear Security Administration United States Department of Energy Washington, DC 20585 Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration | November 2017 Message from the Administrator The Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Fiscal Year 2018 report, Prevent, Counter, and Respond—A Strategic Plan to Reduce Global Nuclear Threats, outlines DOE/NNSA’s plans and programs to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons, counter the threat of nuclear terrorism, and respond to nuclear and radiological incidents around the world. The report is a companion to the Fiscal Year 2018 Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan, which describes DOE/NNSA’s activities to ensure the reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile and maintain its foundational capabilities and infrastructure. In keeping with our commitment to transparency, updated versions of these reports are published each year. Maintaining the U.S. nuclear stockpile and reducing global nuclear threats—two missions that are often thought to involve different technical expertise and pursue disparate goals—are far more interconnected than they may appear. Many activities within these two DOE/NNSA mission pillars are mutually reinforcing and supportive of common objectives. The facilities and scientific knowledge that underpin stockpile stewardship, for example, are harnessed for a range of nonproliferation and counterterrorism missions, from assessing foreign weapons programs and potential terrorist devices to managing the proliferation risks posed by civil nuclear applications. Preventing the spread of nuclear weapons around the world yields considerable benefits for the U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • Stockpile Stewardshipquarterly
    DOE/NA-0066 Office of Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation Stockpile Stewardship Quarterly VOLUME 7 | NUMBER 4 | DECEMBER 2017 essage from the Assistant Deputy Administrator for Research, M Development, Test, and Evaluation, Dr. Kathleen Alexander In stockpile stewardship, one of the most Laboratory (LANL) takes a different focus, widely studied phenomena is the equation looking at the EOS and shock-driven of state (EOS). An EOS is a mathematical decomposition of ‘soft’ materials. LANL relationship that describes the state of uses a two-stage gas gun to collect shock matter (i.e., gas, liquid, or solid) using data of polymers to incorporate in their the material properties of temperature, EOS. volume, pressure, and internal energy. The The Joint Actinide Shock Physics EOS characterizes the properties of a state Experimental Research facility two-stage of matter under a given set of physical gas gun at Nevada National Security Site conditions. It is of interest for the metals (NNSS) is used for both hazardous and and non-metals of stockpile stewardship non-hazardous material studies for input application and is critical to understanding to EOS tables. Many EOS experiments Hong Sio, NNSA-supported senior Physics material behavior. Each of our weapon Department PhD student at the Massachusetts at NNSS involve dynamic materials and laboratories has extensive EOS activities. Institute of Technology (second from left) associated diagnostic developments found time to strike a pose with (left to This issue of the Stockpile Stewardship pertaining to stockpile materials. right) Dr. Njema Frazier and Dr. Bryan Sims Quarterly (SSQ) highlights representative (Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation) EOS activities at our national laboratories, Some of our innovative EOS work origi- and Mark Visosky (TechSource, Inc.) at the the Nevada National Security Site, and nated from the LDRD program projects at 59th Annual Meeting of the American Physical in the Laboratory Directed Research and Sandia.
    [Show full text]
  • Progress in Demonstrating Magneto-Inertial Fusion Science and Scaling Dr
    Progress in demonstrating magneto-inertial fusion science and scaling Dr. Daniel Sinars for the MagLIF team Sandia National Laboratories ARPA-E Annual Meeting August 29-31, 2017 Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-mission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC., a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International, Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525. Magnetized Liner Inertial Fusion (MagLIF) relies on three stages to produce fusion relevant conditions Laser Applied Applied Amplified B-field B-field B-field Current Current- generated B-field Compress the heated Apply axial magnetic field Laser-heat the magnetized fuel and magnetized fuel 2 S. A. Slutz, et al., Phys. Plasmas 17, 056303 (2010). Magnetized Liner Inertial Fusion (MagLIF) relies on three stages to produce fusion relevant conditions Laser Applied Applied Amplified B-field B-field B-field Current Current- generated B-field Can replace magnetic Compress the heated Apply axial magnetic field Laser-heat the magnetized fuel pressure with laser and magnetized fuel ablation pressure 3 S. A. Slutz, et al., Phys. Plasmas 17, 056303 (2010). Our project utilizes existing capabilities* at two institutions to demonstrate magneto-inertial fusion science & scaling Initial Conditions Sandia National Laboratories Laboratory for Laser Energetics • Be liner § 80-TW, 20 MJ § 60-beam, 30-TW, 30 kJ, • ρDT~ 1-4 mg/cc Z pulsed power facility OMEGA laser facility • Bz0~
    [Show full text]
  • Progress in the US Inertial Confinement Fusion Program
    28th IAEA Fusion Energy Conference (FEC 2020) Contribution ID: 1386 Type: Overview Poster [OV POSTER TWIN] Progress in the U.S. Inertial Confinement Fusion Program Monday, 10 May 2021 18:20 (25 minutes) Achieving ignition and high fusion yield in the laboratory is a central goal of the U.S. Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) Program. Three major and credible approaches are currently being pursued: laser indirect-drive (LID), laser direct-drive (LDD), and magnetic direct-drive (MDD). While the three approaches use very differ- ent means for driving a spherical or cylindrical implosion that can compress and heat a mass of deuterium- tritium (DT) fuel (by laser-generated radiation drive, direct laser irradiation, or direct magnetic acceleration, respectively), they share many common challenges, including how to efficiently couple the kinetic energy of the implosion to internal energy of the fuel at stagnation, and how to assemble the fuel at the necessary conditions, in pressure, temperature, and areal density to initiate self-heating and ignition. Significant progress has been made in each of these approaches in recent ICF experiments on the NationalIg- nition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the OMEGA laser facility at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics, and the Z pulsed power facility at Sandia National Laboratories. This includes progress in both advancing the absolute fusion output and, as importantly, improving our knowledge and understanding of the implosion behavior and causes of deviations from ideal or theoretical performance. In this overview, we will review some of the major results from each facility, with a particular focus on recent advances in diagnostic measurement techniques and analysis that have improved our understanding of the states of the assembled fuel and confining shell at stagnation.
    [Show full text]
  • Evaluation of Wavelength Detuning to Mitigate Cross-Beam Energy Transfer Using the Nike Laser
    Evaluation of Wavelength Detuning to Mitigate Cross-Beam Energy Transfer Using the Nike Laser Backlighter beams dm: !3 Å KrF 10 J in 400 ps (FWHM*) Drive beams dm: !3 Å (KrF) Target 1.8 kJ in 4 ns 200-nm outer diameter Nike target chamber 57th Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society P. W. McKenty Division of Plasma Physics University of Rochester Savannah, GA Laboratory for Laser Energetics 16–20 November 2015 1 Summary The Nike laser can be employed to examine the effects of laser wavelength detuning to mitigate cross-beam energy transfer (CBET) • Wavelength detuning is predicted to shift the CBET interaction region within the corona, affecting the gains/losses because of CBET • The Nike platform is well suited for these studies, providing a well- diagnosed system over a range of detunings (Dm ~6 Å KrF) • Initial experiments have commenced on Nike, measuring energy dependence of wavelength detuning TC12419 2 Collaborators J. A. Marozas University of Rochester Laboratory for Laser Energetics J. Weaver, S. P. Obenschain, and A. J. Schmitt Naval Research Laboratory 3 Successful wavelength detuning shifts the resonance location sufficiently to mitigate CBET When probe rays are blue-shifted, the resonance shifts to a higher Mach Pump beam number where intersecting probe rays are negligible When probe rays are red-shifted, the resonance shifts to a lower Mach number where probe rays are blocked CBET causes probe rays and/or have negligible intensity Target to extract energy from rc high-intensity pump rays Parabolic locus of turning points Probe beam TC11766e 4 The NIKE experiments will evaluate the disposition of the scattered light at two specific locations OMEGA Nike CBET Target Target Scattered-light disposition TC12420 D.
    [Show full text]
  • IFE/P6-07 Advantages of Krf Lasers for Inertial Confinement Fusion
    1 IFE/P6-07 Advantages of KrF Lasers for Inertial Confinement Fusion Energy J. L. Weaver 1), S. P. Obenschain 1), J. D. Sethian 1), A. J. Schmitt 1), V. Serlin 1), R. H. Lehmberg 2), M. Karasik 1), J. Oh 2), J. W. Bates 1), Y. Aglitskiy 3), D. Kehne 1), M. Wolford 1), F. Hegeler 4), M. Myers 1), L. Phillips 5), D. Fyfe 5), D. Colombant 1), E. Mclean 2), W. Manheimer 2), J. Seely 6), U. Feldman 7), M. Klapisch 7), A. L. Velikovich 1), J. Giuliani 1), L. Y Chan 1), S. Zalesak 8), C. Manka 2) 1) Plasma Physics Division, U. S. Naval Research Laboratory, Washington DC, USA 2) Research Support Instruments Inc., Lanham, MD, USA 3) Science Applications International Corporation, Mclean, VA, USA 4) Commonwealth Technology Inc., Alexandria, VA, USA 5) Lab. for Computational Sciences, NRL, Washington, DC, USA 6) Space Science Division, NRL, Washington, DC, USA 7) ARTEP Inc., Ellicot City, MD, USA 8) Berkeley Research Associates Inc., Beltsville, MD, USA E-mail contact of first author: [email protected] Abstract. Advanced concepts for direct drive inertial confinement fusion (ICF) have emerged that may lead to sufficient gain for the energy application (g>140) at laser driver energies as low as 1 megajoule. For example, recent “shock ignition” designs compress low aspect ratio pellets then apply a final high intensity spike pulse (1016 W/cm2) to ignite the fuel via a converging shock wave. These analyses were based on an excimer laser with a Krypton-Fluoride lasing (KrF) medium. KrF systems are particularly well suited to these new ideas as they operate in the deep ultraviolet ( =248 nm), provide highly uniform illumination, possess large bandwidth (1-3 THz), and can easily exploit beam zooming to improve laser-target coupling for the final spike pulse.
    [Show full text]