CER News:
UCSD researchers awarded $818k to study IFE targets
16 August 2006
In a partnership with General Atomics Energy Group, Drs. Mark Tillack and René Raffray have been awarded a three-year grant beginning in June 2007 to perform basic research on targets for laser-driven inertial fusion. This research involves a range of topics related to target fabrication, target thermomechanical response and target engagement.
| Extracting energy from inertial fusion requires the repetitive
(approximately 5 Hz) injection of cryogenic (approximately 16 K)
capsules containing the deuterium and tritium used to produce fusion
reactions. These capsules must be fabricated with extremely high
precision, injected into a hot environment without degrading the
properties of the cryogenic fuel, and tracked with a high degree of
precision in order to allow multiple laser beams to compress and heat
the fuel to ignition. In each of these cases, the level of precision
is of the order of microns.
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