Boosting Inertial-Confinement-Fusion Yield with Magnetized Fuel

Abstract

Boosting Inertial-Confinement-Fusion Yield with Magnetized FuelBuilding on a decade of advances in the understanding of neutron production and hot-spot physics, researchers at the National Ignition Facility are pursuing magnetized fusion fuel as a potentially disruptive way to boost the performance of laser-driven implosion.By John D. Moody C reating and maintaining self-sustaining nuclear fusion reactions in the laboratory, such that energy output exceeds energy input, continues to challenge physicists worldwide. While some experiments have demonstrated significant energy release from fusion reactions, none have yet reached the ignition and high-fusion-energy-gain regime-the point at which "runaway" self-heating occurs. The problem is one of confinement: fusing enough nuclei for the reaction to become self-sustaining means bottling up a superheated plasma that wants desperately to expand and cool.

Increased Ion Temperature and Neutron Yield Observed in Magnetized Indirectly Driven D2 -Filled Capsule Implosions on the National Ignition Facility

“…Magnetized ICF involves premagnetizing the cryogenic deuterium-tritium (DT) fuel layer grown on the inside of the ablator prior to implosion with a laser, x ray, or pulsed power driver. The initial seed magnetic field becomes "frozen in" to the fuel plasma and is amplified in simulations with perfect flux conservation by the factor C 2 R [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] as the capsule implodes. C R is the convergence ratio or the ratio of the initial inner capsule radius to the final fuel radius at full compression.…”