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The promise of magnetized fuel [electronic resource] : High gain in inertial confinement fusion

Published
Washington, D.C. : United States. Dept. of Energy, 1991.
Oak Ridge, Tenn. : Distributed by the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, U.S. Dept. of Energy.
Physical Description
Pages: (5 pages) : digital, PDF file
Additional Creators
Los Alamos National Laboratory, United States. Department of Energy, and United States. Department of Energy. Office of Scientific and Technical Information
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Summary
At the third International Conference on Emerging Nuclear Energy Systems, we presented computational results which suggested that breakeven'' experiments in inertial confinement fusion (ICF) may be possible with existing driver technology. Our computations used a simple zero-dimensional model to survey the parameter space available for magnetized fuel. The survey predicted the existence of a totally new region in parameter space where significant thermonuclear fuel burn-up can occur. The new region is quite remote from conventional'' parameter space and is characterized by very low fuel densities, very low implosion velocities, and, most importantly, driver requirements reduced by orders of magnitude. Whereas our initial computations considered only the yield from a hot, magnetized central fuel, we have extended our simple model to include a cold fuel'' layer. In the same spirit as our earlier work, our extended model is intended to provide a starting point for more comprehensive investigations. Our extended model predicts that it is possible to obtain a large cold fuel burn-up fraction, leading to very high gain, and once again, the optimum parameter space is quite remote from that of conventional high gain targets. Although conventional drivers optimized for conventional targets are probably not optimum for magnetized fuel at its extremes, there is a continuum between the conventional parameter space between the conventional parameter space and the new parameter space, suggesting a possible role for conventional drivers. However, it would appear that magnetized fuel warrants a complete rethinking of the entire driver/target configuration.
Report Numbers
E 1.99:la-ur-91-2498
E 1.99: conf-910626--3
conf-910626--3
la-ur-91-2498
Subject(s)
Other Subject(s)
Note
Published through SciTech Connect.
01/01/1991.
"la-ur-91-2498"
" conf-910626--3"
"DE91016321"
6. international conference on emerging nuclear energy systems, Monterey, CA (United States), 16-21 Jun 1991.
Kirkpatrick, R.C.; Lindemuth, I.R.
Funding Information
W-7405-ENG-36
View MARC record | catkey: 14748431