Quasi-spherical direct drive fusion simulations for the Z machine and future accelerators.

VanDevender, J. Pace ; McDaniel, Dillon Heirman ; Roderick, Norman Frederick ; Nash, Thomas J.

关键词: ACCELERATORS;    AMPLIFIERS;    IGNITION;    IMPLOSIONS;    INERTIAL CONFINEMENT;    MICA;    PLASMA;    STABILITY;    VELOCITY Fusion reactors.;    Sandia National Laboratories;    New Mexico;    Z Facility;    Implosions.;   

DOI  :  10.2172/922753
RP-ID  :  SAND2007-7178
PID  :  OSTI ID: 922753
Others  :  TRN: US0802182

学科分类：核物理和高能物理

美国|英语

来源: SciTech Connect

【 摘 要 】

We explored the potential of Quasi-Spherical Direct Drive (QSDD) to reduce the cost and risk of a future fusion driver for Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) and to produce megajoule thermonuclear yield on the renovated Z Machine with a pulse shortening Magnetically Insulated Current Amplifier (MICA). Analytic relationships for constant implosion velocity and constant pusher stability have been derived and show that the required current scales as the implosion time. Therefore, a MICA is necessary to drive QSDD capsules with hot-spot ignition on Z. We have optimized the LASNEX parameters for QSDD with realistic walls and mitigated many of the risks. Although the mix-degraded 1D yield is computed to be {approx}30 MJ on Z, unmitigated wall expansion under the > 100 gigabar pressure just before burn prevents ignition in the 2D simulations. A squeezer system of adjacent implosions may mitigate the wall expansion and permit the plasma to burn.