Dependence of Inertial Confinement Fusion capsule performance on fuel reaction rate

Abstract

In Inertial Confinement Fusion the ignition of the Deuterium–Tritium fuel and the self-sustained thermonuclear burn-wave propagation depend on several factors among them the reaction rate, product of the number densities of the reactants and the thermal reactivity of the fusion reaction. Different mechanisms could affect the reactivity and modify the final thermonuclear gain leading to a failure of ignition. Here, it is analysed the effect of a fuel reaction rate degraded by a given factor $\upchi ~< ~1$ on the kinetic energy needed to reach fuel ignition and thermonuclear burn-out. Ignition and burnout thresholds are firstly defined in the metrics of reactivity factor $\upchi$ and homothetic scaling curves. Then a parametric variation of $\upchi$ shows that a reduction of 10% (20%) on the reaction rate approximately implies a 15% (50% respectively) increase in the kinetic energies thresholds.

Graphical abstract