ELI Summer School 2016
Inertial Confinement Fusion for Energy
J. Limpouch
Czech Technical University in Prague Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering Department of Physical Electronics
ELI-Beamlines, Dolní Břežany, August 25, 2016 Nuclear energy
Differences in binding energy per nucleon are exploited for energy production
• The most stable nucleus is 56Fe (Z=26, A = 56) • Energy gained either by fission of heavy nuclei • or by fusion of light nuclei • particle (4He) – high B/A
• Coulomb repulsion prevents nuclei from fusing – height ~1 MeV • Fortunately, quantum tunneling enables fusion at lower energy • Fusion cross-section is ~106 less than for elastic collisions beam-target interaction cannot produce energy gain Fusion reactions
• Reaction D + T n + 4He + 17.6 MeV highest cross-section at low energies high energy 340 GJ/g of fuel 1 g DT 4.5 g 235U 10 t coal • Tritium is missing in nature, but it can be produced from abundant Li n + 6Li 4He (2.1 MeV) + T (2.7 MeV) n + 7Li 4He + n + T – 2.47 MeV • Ideal ignition temperature (fusion energy =
radiation losses) Tid = 4.3 keV DT drawback energetic n (how is energy distributed between n and 4He ?) DD reaction – only slow neutrons, higher threshold, lower yield 2 channels D + D p + T + 4 MeV ; D + D n + 3He + 3.27 MeV
Neutronless fusion – charged products (no radioactivity), Tid~100 keV p + 11B 3 4He + 8.7 MeV ; p + 6Li 4He + 3He + 4 MeV Confinement and burn
• Hot fuel has to be confined for sufficient time t to allow significant burn fraction
Let nf is cumulative number of fusion reactions in unit volume, nD, nT is deuterium and tritium density, then
for t=0 nD=nT=n0/2 and nf = 0
nf(t) = (t) n0/2 and
8 for constant reaction rate (Ti 20 keV = 2.3210 K)
to reach =1/3 n t <v>-1 1015 cm-3s 0 • Confinement – Gravitational (stars) 14 -3 14 -3 (1) – Magnetic (tokamaks, stellarators, n010 cm , 0.05, n0t 10 cm s) – Inertial
(1)Lawson criterion derived from energy production or energy balance arguments Fusion power balance
• Fusion products – neutron escapes from fuel but -particles
are basically stopped in the fuel and heat it, let is the part of energy heating the fuel, then the heating power is 11P2 S E n2 v E 4 16 2 kTB • Power loss by radiation (bremstrahlung emission) and due to finite energy confinement time t are 2 2 1/2 2 1/2 PP3 SB C B Z eff n T C B n T C B2 3/2 S C kTb 2 t
• At threshold S = SB + SC. For = 1 plotted threshold versus T • Minimum Pt 8.3 bar.s at T = 15 keV • At 5 keV threshold Pt 36 bar.s Inertial fusion – compression necessity
• Inertial confinement – hardly any confinement, due to inertia disassembling of hot fuel takes final time • Spherical hot fuel assembly assumed (radius R), then 1/2 t R/3cs (ion sound velocity ~ T ) and n0 /2.5mp 2 2 , HB 6.3 g/cm , = 1/3 R = 3 g/cm
8 • Fuel pressure P [bar] 810 Ti [keV] • In ICF (inertial confinement fusion) conditions: R 3 g/cm2, T 10 keV PR ~ 31010 barcm E ~ PV ~ 3109 R2 [J] • If E ~ 300 kJ can be delivered to the fuel, then R ~ 100 mm, 3 3 P ~ 3 Tbar, ~ 300 g/cm (solid DT density DT = 0.25 g/cm ) • How to achieve such tremendous pressures and densities? Carefully tuned spherical implosions !! Indirect and direct drive
Lasers, heavy ion beams or Z-pinches Lasers directly irradiate produce in a miniature cavity called and ablate the capsule hohlraum X-rays that ablate capsule Ablation and compression
Low-Z ablator for efficient absorption Lasers
or X-rays
Rocket-like implo- Absorption region Heated exhaust sion of nearly Fermi- degenerate fuel • Acceleration comes from particle momentum • Irradiance is balanced by the outflow of heated material 4 4 3.5 • For ID IX-ray SBTr ~ nTcs Pabl ~ SBTr /cs~ Tr 14 2 • Typically Tr 300 eV IX-ray 810 W/cm Pabl 100 Mbar • Similar laser intensities used, short l to avoid fast electron preheat 4 • Stagnation (max. compression) PsgVsg PablV0 and Psg~ 10 Pabl -4 Vsg~ 10 V0 R0/Rsg ~ 20 (like compressing football to a pea) Energy flow and gain
• Driver energy ED is coupled with efficiency c to capsule
• Capsule energy cED is converted with hydro (rocket) efficiency H into energy of imploding fuel • Typically Direct Drive (DD) Indirect Drive (ID)
c 0.8 0.2 H 0.1 0.2
• So overall efficiency T is ~0.08 for DD and ~0.04 for ID • Theoretical fusion energy gain seems high
• But overall target gain is GT ~ TG ~ 16 (DD) and ~8 (ID). Considering the efficiency of heat conversion into electricity and electricity into driver energy, this is far too low. • So volume heated DT cannot work for energy production.
Spark ignition
• Solution – heat a small part of the fuel to high T and fusion particles heat the surrounding cold dense fuel and fusion burn wave propagates
Isobaric fuel assembly • This works fine in 1D spherical numerical simulations, but life is not 1D • Mixing must be avoided of cold fuel into hot spot material • Implosion symmetry is important issue, small non-unifomities are magnified when shell is imploded to very small radius • Hydroinstabilities during implosion are major concern Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities (RTI)
• RTI is major concern • RTI may appear where .P < 0 • Classically interface between upper heavier fluid and lighter one below • When approaching ablation surface from outside - density pressure • Deceleration phase - unstable region • At stagnation – perturbations lead to mix of cold fuel with hot spot that can quench the burn • 3D calculations are used to assess capsule performance in the presence of perturbations National Ignition Facility
• 1 building, 5 hectares (2 soccer fields) • Height 10-stores house • 10 years construction • 30 years operation • > 4 G$ - financed for maintaining nuclear weapons stockpile • Indirect drive - primary as similar to H bomb • 192 beams of Nd-laser in 48 quads converted to 3w – 1.8 MJ in 20 ns shaped pulses • 1 shot/8 hours, < 1 % • Full energy 2009 • Operates perfectly Similar lab. LMJ near Bordeaux starts operation now NIF missions NIF interaction chamber and targets
Target chamber 10 m view from equator (diagnostics and target) Laser beams from upper and lower side Cryogenic target at 17.3 K Hohlraum, lasers in 4 cones Capsule with plastic layered ablator doped by Si Experiments
• Hohlraum and capsule must be perfectly matched with laser pulse, capsule precise shape • The original scheme developed over 10 years was based on 4 shocks with low energy picket st low foot radiation Tr small 1 shock to keep fuel at low adiabat (P/PFermi ~ 1.45) • Outer cones laser l is tuned to modify cross-beam energy transfer (CBET) and reach macroscopically symmetric capsule irradiation (time dependence still uncertain, modelling capability insufficient)
• In the point design – peak Tr = 300 eV, vimpl 370 km/s, P= 375 Gbar, gain ~ 10 (51018 neutrons) • Instabilities and fuel mix underestimated in simulations max. fusion yield ~1015 neutrons • Unstable growth of baroclinic vorticity (P/2) seeded by the tent • Partial cure – high foot + 3-shocks - stability , gain , predictability (price paid– adiabat lower compression) High foot experiments
• High foot – foot Tr ~ 90 eV (1.5Tr for low foot) to increase ablation velocity and density scale length ablative RT instability is suppressed
• Higher adiabat (P/PFermi 2.5) reduces convergence ratio, final compression, theoretical core pressures and R. Lower amplifi-
cation of asymmetries. No ignition possible for present C, H . • 1.9 MJ of 3w radiation accelerated DT to 380 km/s, fuel kinetic energy 12 kJ, neutron yield ~ 1016, released fusion energy 26 kJ > 2x fuel energy (but ~ 1.5% of laser energy) • More than doubling fusion yield due to -particle self-heating 2 • Confinement R 1.1 g/cm , Ti 5 keV, P > 200 Gbar, Pt 20 bar.s (for ICF ignition at 5 keV 36 bar.s required) • Demonstrated mitigation of RTI consistent with theory predictions • Depleted uranium hohlraum increased hotspot symmetry, efficient ablators Be or HDC – same performance as plastics; rugby hohlraum, nearly vacuum hohlraums are studied
Alternative drivers for Indirect Drive
• Nuclear explosion – in Halite/Centurion program in 1980’s X-rays from underground nuclear test shined into a hohlraum and ignited inertial fusion in a capsule • Heavy ion beam - driver with efficiency >50% and 10 Hz feasible, nobody will finance large installation before ignition with lasers • Z-pinch (wire array) – Z-machine Sandia 2 MJ X-ray energy, 15% plug-to-X-rays efficiency
Direct drive
• Main experiments at Omega laser in LLE Univ. Rochester, USA • 60 laser beams symmetrically irradiate cryogenic capsule • Total laser energy 30 kJ, laser smoothing techniques adopted • Intensity slightly < 1015 W/cm2 to control laser-plasma instabilities • Implosion performance scales hydrodynamically to ~2x heating
at NIF energy (higher C , but lower implosion quality) • NIF – polar direct drive (symmetric impossible) – preliminary experiments started, enhanced losses due to CBET Advanced fusion schemes
• Advanced schemes use external means to increase temperature of compressed (either by DD or ID) fuel – Fast ignition (FI) – energetic particle beam (electrons or ions) – Shock ignition (SI) – spherically convergent shocks – Magnetized ICF or magneto-inertial fusion (MIF) – magnetic fields • The basic idea of FI and SI is to use long (ns) laser pulse for compression to reach sufficient R with low temperature and then to use short (ps) pulse to heat and ignite the fuel • Though idea of decoupling compression and heating was proposed earlier, interest started with emergence of high-power ultrashort-pulse lasers (chirped pulse amplification) Fast ignition
• Lower requirements on implosion (mix, convergence, ..) • Lower fuel - more mass to burn – higher energy gain • Electron beam fast ignition – Intense laser hot (very energetic) electrons at critical surface – At maximum compression – extensive target corona and critical surface is far from dense core most electrons miss the core – Cures (a) hole boring scheme – channel is produced in corona by laser (b) cone is imbedded into the capsule
Fast ignition (continued)
– The major challenge are in controlling the energy and divergence of the fast electrons, strongly influenced by tenuous filling of the cone due to pedestal of short intense pulse – Experiments carried out at FIREX laser in ILE Osaka and Omega + Omega EP in Rochester with slight increase in neutron yield (from 106 few times 107) – In LLE - 54 Omega 3w beams with total 18 kJ on target for compression and ignitor 1 kJ 10 ps 1.05 mm Omega EP beam – Self- generated-resistive or externally applied magnetic fields may be used to improve electron beam collimation, otherwise 1 MJ ignitor not sufficient • Proton (Ion) FI – loss of efficiency in converting hot electron energy into ions balanced by ability to focus into small spot Shock ignition
• Strong shocks – heat production dominates over work must be avoided during compression, but it may heat the compressed fuel • Shcherbakov 1983 proposed to ignite by spherically convergent shock wave but it would require too high shock pressures • Betti 2007 - utilize collision of the ignitor shock with return shock driven by rising pressure inside central hot-spot – viable shock • Possible problem – ignitor spike intensity > 51016 above threshold of parametric instabilities (PI) in extensive corona – ? Nearly all laser energy reflected by Stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) ? Shock ignition - continued
• Experiments at OMEGA and simulations show that complicated interplay of various PI suppresses SBS reflectivity to ~10 % • Stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) dominates over Two Plasmon decay (TPD) and hot electron temperatures ~50 – 80 keV are beneficial for shock generation, interaction physics still concern • Shock launching pressures > 300 Mbar required, planar expts at PALS 90 Mbar, recently spherical strong shock expts at OMEGA at 27 kJ and 61015 W/cm2 pressures up to 400 Mbar • In 1st Omega experiment 4x fusion yield increase against spark ignit. • Low 1D marginal ignition energy 290 kJ (100 ps spike 47 kJ) • Target thick shells imploded at relatively low velocities 200 – 300 km/s on a low adiabat • HIPER project – shock ignition Magneto-inertial fusion
• Relies on reduction of electron thermal conductivity and -particle range in direction normal to B • Required B > 1 kT far higher that can be reached conventionally and it is attained by compression moderate external B with fluid • MagLIF – magnetized (30 T) liner is preheated by laser and then compressed via pinch effect (Z-machine) • This scheme is in early phase of development, too early for evaluation
Inertial fusion energy IFE power balance
PIN = f Pout = f T G D PIN f T G D = 1 The cycling power should not be too high, let f = 0.25
With T = 0.4 D G 10
Representative numbers for (1-f) Pout = 1000 MW block and 10% driver efficiency (D ) – f = 0.23, PIN = 300 MW, driver 6 MJ, 5 Hz (30 MW), G = 100, output 3 GW (600 MJ), T = 0.43, Pout = 1.3 MJ Reactor target chamber
• 600 MJ is the energy released in explosion of 1/7 ton TNT – However, damage to chamber is caused by momentum p and 1/2 p = m v = (2 E m ) and for mDT = 5.4 mg is the momentum equivalent exposion of mTNT = 29 g – Protecting the first wall against radiation introduces more mass • Reactor chamber requirements – Regenerate chamber conditions for target injection, driver beam propagation, and ignition at sufficiently high rates – Protect chamber structures for several to many years or allow easy replacement of inexpensive modular components – Extract fusion energy in high-temperature coolant, regenerate tritium – Reduce radioactive waste generation, inventory, and possible release fractions low enough to meet no-public-evacuation standards • Chamber cost accounts for 7 – 15 % of power station cost
IFE power plant concepts
• Many concepts propose and analyzed, here just 2 examples • HYLIFE–II – heavy ion driver, uses oscillating liquid jets of FLIBE (a F, Li and Be molten salt) to protect fusion chamber from neutrons and also to produce Tritium IFE power plant concepts
• SOMBRERO is a fusion chamber for direct drive laser targets – Chamber is from low-activation carbon composites – The flowing ceramic coolant is shown in green – Driver – either diode-pumped solid-state laser (DPSSL) or KrF excimer laser Target production and injection
• About 500 000 targets par day must be produced • Cost of 1 target must be < 0.30 $ (presently ~104 more) • Capsule must be extremely precise – asymmetries < 1%, thickness of DT layer with inhomogeneities < 1 %, low surface roughness required • Strategies for mass production are being developed
• Targets must be delivered into focus with speed ~ 100 m/s • Target must be placed into focus with accuracy < 20 mm Conclusion
• ICF ignition has yet to be demonstrated • Implosion stability is more difficult problem than expected • Considerable progress in understanding physics has been achieved • It is not sure (but not excluded) that ignition can be achieved at present installations • Advanced schemes for ICF are being developed to decrease ICF threshold and increase gain (shock ignition looks promising) • There is still long path from ICF ignition to using it for energy production
Thank you for attention