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Fusion Science and Technology
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U.K. vision for fusion
The U.K. government has announced a series of initiatives to progress fusion to commercialization, laid out in a fusion strategy policy paper published March 16. A New Energy Revolution: The UK’s Plan for Delivering Fusion Energy begins to describe how the government’s £2.5 billion (about $3.4 billion) investment in fusion research and development over five years will be allocated.
S. W. Haan, J. Atherton, D. S. Clark, B. A. Hammel, D. A. Callahan, C. J. Cerjan, E. L. Dewald, S. Dixit, M. J. Edwards, S. Glenzer, S. P. Hatchett, D. Hicks, O. S. Jones, O. L. Landen, J. D. Lindl, M. M. Marinak, B. J. Macgowan, A. J. Mackinnon, N. B. Meezan, J. L. Milovich, D. H. Munro, H. F. Robey, J. D. Salmonson, B. K. Spears, L. J. Suter, R. P. Town, S. V. Weber, J. L. Kline, D. C. Wilson
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 63 | Number 2 | March-April 2013 | Pages 67-75
Technical Paper | Selected papers from 20th Target Fabrication Meeting, May 20-24, 2012, Santa Fe, NM, Guest Editor: Robert C. Cook | doi.org/10.13182/FST13-TFM20-31
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The National Ignition Campaign (NIC) on the National Ignition Facility plans to use an indirectly driven spherical implosion to assemble and ignite a mass of D-T fuel. The NIC is currently in the process of conducting a variety of experiments using surrogate targets, meant to define various aspects of the future ignition experiment. Four platforms have been developed: Re-emit targets measure the symmetry of the early part of the pulse, keyhole targets measure the strength and time of shocks, symcap targets measure integrated performance and implosion symmetry, and ConA targets measure implosion velocity and ablator performance. Also, cryogenic layered capsules similar to the ignition design, containing a layer of either D-T or hydrodynamically equivalent tritium-rich fuel, are being fielded. These integrate the laser and target adjustments made during the tuning experiments and test the integrated performance with data on RhoR, temperature, yield, and other diagnostics. In an activity ongoing with these experiments, the point design for ignition is updated and modified as appropriate. This paper summarizes the target designs that are being used for the campaign, the results of the experimental campaign to date, and how the campaign has affected requirements for the eventual ignition experiment.