Overview and latest proposals in SBS PCM based IFE technology featuring self-navigation of lasers on injected direct drive pellets

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F68407700%3A21340%2F11%3A00374752" target="_blank" >RIV/68407700:21340/11:00374752 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://info.fusion.ciemat.es/OCS/EPS2011PAP/pdf/PD4.05.pdf" target="_blank" >https://info.fusion.ciemat.es/OCS/EPS2011PAP/pdf/PD4.05.pdf</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Overview and latest proposals in SBS PCM based IFE technology featuring self-navigation of lasers on injected direct drive pellets

Original language description

One of the very difficult challenges to deal with in the inertial fusion energy (IFE) integrated approach is connected with the need of simultaneous and very precise irradiation of injected pellets containing thermonuclear fuel inside the reactor chamber by many dozens (or even hundreds) of powerful laser beams. Sophisticated tracking of injected pellets' trajectories is necessary for a reliable prediction of the place which would be the most suitable for interaction with the driver beams in order to achieve necessary spherical symmetry of irradiation required for subsequent fuel compression and burn. For the direct drive scheme the following set of parameters is being currently considered: pellets of ~ 4 mm in diameter should be delivered into the virtual sphere of ~ 5 mm in diameter located around the center of the reactor chamber ~ 10 m in diameter. Combined precision of tracking and aiming should be ~ 20 μm. Navigation technologies developed so far are gradually approaching the required margin in the case of fully evacuated reactor chambers. However, in its practical use, there are serious obstacles complicating this direct drive IFE scheme – even putting its feasibility in doubts. Among the most serious ones is the insufficient predictability of the injected pellets' trajectories resulting from their expected interaction with remnants of previous fusion explosions due to the considered 5-10 Hz repetition rate. Hence some time consuming adjustment of heavy final optics for every shot and every laser beam is always necessary. This fact is partially responsible for a rather tight margin ~ 500 μm on the pellets successful delivery into the above mentioned virtual sphere. This might be also one of the reasons why the indirect drive scheme seems to be currently considered as a more serious IFE candidate - having the corresponding hohlraum targets by three orders of magnitude heavier compared to their direct drive counterparts, thus allowing for much more reliable prediction of their trajectories.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

D - Article in proceedings

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

10306 - Optics (including laser optics and quantum optics)

Project

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Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2011

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Article name in the collection

Europhysics Conference Abstracts. 38th EPS Conference on Plasma Physics

ISBN

978-1-61839-593-1

ISSN

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e-ISSN

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Number of pages

4

Pages from-to

1856-1859

Publisher name

European Physical Society

Place of publication

Mulhouse

Event location

Strasbourg

Event date

Jun 27, 2011

Type of event by nationality

WRD - Celosvětová akce

UT code for WoS article

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