1. October 19, 2003 Fusion Power Associates Status of Fast Ignition-High Energy Density Physics Joe Kilkenny Director Inertial Fusion Technology General Atomics San Diego, California

3. Ignition and gain curves for multiple target concepts show the advantages of Fast Ignition — Fast ignition potentially gives more gain and lower threshold energy then “ Hot Spot ” ICF but the science and technology are far less developed FI at NIF Intensity ~10 14 - 10 15 w/cm 2 Intensity ~10 20 w/cm 2 Indirect Drive Advanced Indirect Drive on NIF

4. Fast Ignition has attractive features in addition to high gain at lower total drive energy Challenging science and technology Compression MIGHT be possible with all Drivers –  0.53  m, 1.05  m (?) Brightness requirements for compression drivers are reduced –Radiation temperatures of ~100ev required for compression! Direct and Indirect target schemes for compression Innovative target concepts –one-sided indirect drive –indirect drive illumination ( PDD) for direct drive –asymmetric compression drive configurations Target fabrication tolerances are relaxed

5. NIF produces ~4 MJ at 1.05  m

6. Heavy Ion Beam Drive Z-pinch Drive Indirect Laser drive Direct Laser drive Heavy Ion Beam Drive ions Fast Ignition is compatible with all drivers Innovative target designs are possible BUT Ignitor laser energy must be determined!

7. NNSA is interested too! The photons, electrons and ions from PW lasers can be used to heat and diagnose HEDP plasmas Multi-kJ PW’s are now planned for OMEGA(EP), Z-R, and NIF

9. The Z-Beamlet laser is being upgraded to provide a high energy PW laser for use on Sandia’s Z facility Z-Beamlet multikilojoule laser facility Z-Beamlet and Z-PW laser facility Z z-pinch facility Z multimegajoule z-pinch facility The Z-Beamlet laser will provide a 2-4 kJ, 1-10 psec laser ~ 2007 A 50-200 J, 0.5 - 10 psec prototype laser system will begin operation in 2004. High energy radiography and fast ignitor experiments on Z facility

13. Resistive inhibition needs testing under ignition relevant conditions Experiments are needed in low resistivity plasmas 1.E-09 1.E-08 1.E-07 1.E-06 1.E-05 0.11101001000 Temperature eV Resistivity Ohm m Current expts DT fuel Au cone ?? Ohmic limit in FI CD 1 g/cc D2 10 g/cc 100 g/cc Au CDCD Critical Surface Dense Gold Coronal Plasma/Gold Compressed Core e

14. US OFES effort addresses all aspects of FI OFES support is highly leveraged –Complementary programs –Internal funds –Overseas collaborations FI Target design efforts at NNSA funded labs –SNL - Z - PW –LLE - Omega EP –LLNL - NIF -HEPW US Fusion Energy program OFES UC Davis Princeton GA Vulcan GekkoXII LULI LLNL LLE SNL UN,Reno Ignition target design Fast Ignition Concept Exploration OMEGA

16. Hydro Modeling agrees very well Stagnation time, shape Compressed density Emission from target Model does not include mixing of Au vapor with collapsing shell - will measure from excess self- emission Models may be sufficiently accurately to for target design extrapolations Compact mass, ~60 mg/cm 2 minimal cone vapor

17. Electron beam is moderately well directed Al thickness micron 180  m Cu 20  m Al 20  m LULI data (20 J, 0.5 ps) RAL data (100J, 0.8 ps) Minimum spot size 70  m, cone angle 40° Insensitive to pulse energy (to 100 J)

18. GEKKO laser: 12 green laser beams E= 10 kJ, t = 1-2 nsec. Uniform irradiation(phase plates) for high density compression. I ~10 14 watts/cm 2 PW laser: 1 beam (~400 J) At 1 micron. PW peak power is utilized for fast heating. I~10 19 watts/cm 2 ILE Osaka Integral FI experiments at Gekko XII-PW have catalyzed FI interest worldwide

19. Integral experiments at ILE show efficient heating Nine drive beams, 2.5 kJ 1/2 PW ignition beam Deuterated plastic target 300 J short pulse doubled the core plasma temp to 0.8 keV implying 40% coupling of E PW 250  m X-ray image Cone Target 10 4 6 8 0.11 Neutron Yield Heating Laser Power (PW) c Rqd timing ~50ps a b T~0.8 keV ILE Osaka

20. A credible pathway to take FI to concept demonstration exists Proof of Principle (Concept Extension) Significant core heating at relevant conditions –FIREX1 (Japan) Concept Demonstration (Ignition/gain) –US Facilities ( , Z, NIF) with PW

21. Summary Short pulse (  10 15 Watts/cm 2 -st) have enabled the new field of “high energy density physics (HEDP)” There is an increasing national and international interest in HEDP Fast Ignition exploits the physics and technology of HEDP & features: –Science frontier-relativistic plasmas, etc –Compatible with all drivers –Flexibility in reactor concepts –International collaborations ? –High gain potential at sub-megajoule energies