The heavy ion fusion program in the USA

Abstract

The U.S. Department of Energy has established a new, larger inertial fusion energy program. To manage program growth, we have developed a new inertial fusion energy research and we have establishes a Virtual National Laboratory for Heavy Ion Fusion.There has been significant technical progress. Improvements in target design have reduced the predicted energy requirements by approximately a factor of two. There have also been important experiments on chamber dynamics and other inertial fusion technologies. The accelerator program has completed a number of small-scale experiments. Experiments with driver-scale beams are being designed --including experiments with driver-scale ion sources and injectors.Finally we are developing the technologies needed to build a major research facility known as the Integrated Research Experiment (IRE).

The Need for a Neutron Source at the Rare Isotope Accelerator

“…Induction linac technology appears to offer the possibility of generating such a beam as well, and it has a proven track record of accelerating kiloampere bunches of electron beams [12], and is being studies extensively for potential heavy ion fusion applications [13]. But, to date, there is limited experience with intense proton beams accelerated in this type of machine.…”

Impact of Beam Transport Method on Chamber and Driver Design for Heavy Ion Inertial Fusion Energy

“…The U.S. heavy ion fusion (HIF) program is working towards the development of a commercially viable inertial fusion energy (IFE) power plant for generating electricity [1,2,3].…”

Scaled beam merging experiment for heavy ion inertial fusion

“…Early results from this experiment are in [8][9][10]. Overviews of the U.S. heavy ion driven inertial fusion energy research program are in [11,12] and a review of the main classes of architecture for heavy ion induction accelerator drivers is in [13].…”