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Magnetized inertial fusion (MIF) could substantially ease the difficulty of reaching plasma conditions required for significant fusion yields, but it has been widely accepted that the gain is not sufficient for fusion energy. Numerical simulations are presented showing that high-gain MIF is possible in cylindrical liner implosions based on the MagLIF concept [S. A. Slutz et al Phys. Plasmas 17, 056303 (2010)PHPAEN1070-664X10.1063/1.3333505] with the addition of a cryogenic layer of deuterium-tritium (DT). These simulations show that a burn wave propagates radially from the magnetized hot spot into the surrounding much denser cold DT given sufficient hot-spot areal density. For a drive current of 60 MA the simulated gain exceeds 100, which is more than adequate for fusion energy applications. The simulated gain exceeds 1000 for a drive current of 70 MA. © 2012 American Physical Society.

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TYPE Journal Article YEAR 2012

OSTI Scopus

Plasma Power Station with Quasi Spherical Direct Drive Capsule for Fusion Yield and Inverse Diode for Driver-Target Coupling

Fusion Science and Technology

Cuneo, M.E.; Matzen, M.K.; Sinars, Daniel S.; Slutz, Stephen A.; Herrmann, Mark H.; Vesey, Roger A.; Seidel, David B.; Schneider, Larry X.; Mikkelson, Kenneth A.; Harper-Slaboszewicz, V.H.; Sefkow, Adam B.

The Meier-Moir economic model for Pulsed Power Driven Inertial Fusion Energy shows at least two approaches for fusion energy at 7 to 8 cents/kw-hr: One with large yield at 0.1 Hz and presented by M. E. Cuneo at ICENES 2011 and one with smaller yield at 3 Hz presented in this paper. Both use very efficient and low cost Linear Transformer Drivers (LTDs) for the pulsed power. Here, we report the system configuration and end-to-end simulation for the latter option, which is called the Plasma Power Station (PPS), and report the first results on the two, least mature, enabling technologies: a magnetically driven Quasi Spherical Direct Drive (QSDD) capsule for the fusion yield and an Inverse Diode for coupling the driver to the target. In addition, we describe the issues and propose to address the issues with a prototype of the PPS on the Saturn accelerator and with experiments on a short pulse modification of the Z accelerator test the validity of simulations showing megajoule thermonuclear yield with DT on a modified Z.

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TYPE Journal Article YEAR 2012

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Plasma power station with quasi spherical direct drive capsule for fusion yield and inverse diode for driver-target coupling

Fusion Science and Technology

VanDevender, J.P.; Cuneo, M.E.; Slutz, S.A.; Herrmann, Mark H.; Vesey, Roger A.; Sinars, Daniel S.; Seidel, David B.; Schneider, Larry X.; Mikkelson, Kenneth A.; Harper-Slaboszewicz, V.H.; Peyton, B.P.; Sefkow, Adam B.; Matzen, M.K.

The Meier-Moir economic model for Pulsed Power Driven Inertial Fusion Energy shows at least two approaches for fusion energy at 7 to 8 cents/kw-hr: One with large yield at 0.1 Hz and presented by M. E. Cuneo at ICENES 2011 and one with smaller yield at 3 Hz presented in this paper. Both use very efficient and low cost Linear Transformer Drivers (LTDs) for the pulsed power. We report the system configuration and end-toend simulation for the latter option, which is called the Plasma Power Station (PPS), and report the first results on the two, least mature, enabling technologies: a magnetically driven Quasi Spherical Direct Drive (QSDD) capsule for the fusion yield and an Inverse Diode for coupling the driver to the target. In addition, we describe the issues and propose to address the issues with a prototype of the PPS on the Saturn accelerator and with experiments on a short pulse modification of the Z accelerator test the validity of simulations showing megajoule thermonuclear yield with DT on a modified Z.

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TYPE Conference YEAR 2012

Scopus OSTI

Monochromatic 6.151-keV radiographs of a highly unstable inertial confinement fusion capsule implosion

IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science

Cuneo, M.E.; Vesey, Roger A.; Bennett, Guy R.; Sinars, Daniel S.; Smith, Ian C.; Atherton, B.W.; Porter, John L.; Wenger, D.F.

Monochromatic 6.151-keV radiographs of a highly unstable inertial confinement fusion capsule are shown. The capsule was driven by a 70-eV peak radiation temperature and exhibits numerous small-scale features down to the resolution of the backlighting diagnostic (about 15 μm). The capsule experiment was done using the double-ended Z -pinch-driven hohlraum on the Sandia Z facility. © 2006 IEEE.

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TYPE Journal Article YEAR 2011

OSTI Scopus