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From Capitol Hill: Nuclear is back, critical for America’s energy future
The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy convened its first hearing of the year, “American Energy Dominance: Dawn of the New Nuclear Era,” on January 7, where lawmakers and industry leaders discussed how nuclear energy can help meet surging electricity demand driven by artificial intelligence, data centers, advanced manufacturing, and national security needs.
A. Bayramian et al.
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 60 | Number 1 | July 2011 | Pages 28-48
IFE - NIF & LIFE | Proceedings of the Nineteenth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (TOFE) (Part 1) | doi.org/10.13182/FST10-313
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper presents our conceptual design for laser drivers used in Laser Inertial Fusion Energy (LIFE) power plants. Although we have used only modest extensions of existing laser technology to ensure near-term feasibility, predicted performance meets or exceeds plant requirements: 2.2 MJ pulse energy produced by 384 beamlines at 16 Hz, with 18% wall-plug efficiency. High reliability and maintainability are achieved by mounting components in compact line-replaceable units that can be removed and replaced rapidly while other beamlines continue to operate, at up to ~13% above normal energy, to compensate for neighboring beamlines that have failed. Statistical modeling predicts that laser-system availability can be greater than 99% provided that components meet reasonable mean-time-between-failure specifications.