Small inertial fusion energy (IFE) demonstration reactors

Abstract

ICF (inertial confinement fusion) target design studies done for the Nova Upgrade have identified conditions under which the target ignition 'cliff' is shifted to much lower drive energy, albeit with the penalty that the gain achieved at a given drive energy is also smaller. These targets would repeatably produce the output and spectra of higher gain targets at low yield. They should thus allow building much smaller R&D reactors with full thermonuclear effects. Demonstration reactors at the 1 to 100 MW/sub e/ level appear to be feasible with driver energies of 0.5 to 2.0 MJ/pulse. These smaller, less expensive test and demonstration facilities should result in a lower IFE development cost. If the US government builds a driver and target factory, it is also conceivable that commercial organizations could build their own scaled concepts of IFE reactors using the beams and targets supplied by the government's facilities.<>