Abstract
Inertial confinement fusion, which is another major and equally unsuccessful approach to fusion, is discussed in this chapter. In it a small target filled with deuterium-tritium fuel at high density is imploded in an attempt to create fusion conditions. The most common drivers consist of (multiple) laser beams but beams of particles are also considered. It has culminated in the American National Ignition Facility, which was constructed with the goal of reaching ignition, but failed.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Named after Edward Teller and Stanislav Ulam (1909–1984). Ulam was a Polish-American mathematician and physicist. The Teller-Ulam configuration originated from an idea Ulam had in 1951. It was first tested in 1952 in the Ivy Mike, the first test of a full-scale thermonuclear device.
- 2.
Nuckolls has written a report of his early work on ICF in a 1998 Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory report “Early Steps Toward Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) (1952–1962)”, UCRL-ID-131075.
- 3.
See the Glossary for a brief explanation of a laser.
- 4.
NIF website accessed 18 June 2020 (https://lasers.llnl.gov/about/how-nif-works/seven-wonders/target-fabrication).
- 5.
Neodymium is a rare earth metal with atomic number 60 belonging to the lanthanides. Neodymium-doped crystals can generate high-powered infrared laser beams.
- 6.
Dean 2013, p. 91ff, p. 130, p. 135 and other places. For instance, because of cuts by Congress the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory was shut down in 1997.
- 7.
- 8.
Office of Defense Programs, 2015 Review of the Inertial Confinement Fusion and High Energy Density Science Portfolio, May 2016.
- 9.
NIF website (https://lasers.llnl.gov/science/ignition/ignition-experiments), accessed 18 June 2020.
- 10.
An example is the reporting in 2013 of a fusion shot that produced many more neutrons than ever before, and also noted that the reaction released more energy than the “energy being absorbed by the fuel”, described as “scientific breakeven” and referred to as a “milestone”. A number of researchers pointed out that the experiment was far below ignition and did not represent a breakthrough as reported. Others noted that the definition of breakeven was when the fusion output was equal to the energy of the laser used. This definition of breakeven was not repeated in the Nature publication of 20.02.2014. In the report, the term was changed to refer to the energy deposited in the fuel, not the energy of the laser. Moreover, the method used to reach these levels was claimed not to be suitable for general ignition. (Wikipedia)
- 11.
Other fusion research comes under the Office of Fusion Energy Sciences of the Department of Energy.
- 12.
EP stands for extended performance.
- 13.
Because of the presence of the Federal Nuclear Centre Sarov is a closed town, which can only be visited with special permission. From 1946 to 1995 it was known as Arzamas-16, where the Soviet atomic bomb project was carried out.
- 14.
Laser Mégajoule website, http://www-lmj.cea.fr/, accessed 9 November 2018.
- 15.
- 16.
- 17.
A diode is a sort of electronic one-way valve as it conducts current primarily in one direction and not in the other. It has low (ideally zero) resistance in one direction, and high (ideally infinite) resistance in the other.
- 18.
See the very clear and instructive webpage of Sandia for further explanation: https://www.sandia.gov/z-machine/about_z/how-z-works.html, accessed 20 June 2020.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Reinders, L.J. (2021). Inertial Confinement Fusion. In: The Fairy Tale of Nuclear Fusion. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64344-7_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64344-7_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-64343-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-64344-7
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)