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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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Latest News
Recent surveys confirm high levels of U.S. nuclear support
Surveys have consistently indicated that public support in the United States for the use of nuclear energy has been increasing in recent years. Four recent surveys continue to suggest that near-record-high numbers of Americans support nuclear energy. However, the survey results differ—sometimes widely—in the details of their findings.
Walter Seifritz, Walter Väth
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 21 | Number 1 | January 1992 | Pages 5-11
Technical Paper | ICF Driver Technology | doi.org/10.13182/FST92-A29700
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The recirculating power fraction of a laser-driven inertial confinement fusion (ICF) reactor can be reduced by using laser diodes to pump a neodymium solid-state laser. To overcome the high costs of two-dimensional arrays of laser diodes, two types of superresonators are proposed: a terrestrially based one and an extraterrestrially based one on a geostationary orbit. Both are designed in such a way that a sequence of short laser pulses (10 to 20 ns wide), each with an energy of 5 to 10 MJ and a frequency of 10 Hz, are produced to trigger a deuterium-tritium ICF reactor. The terrestrial superresonator needs a much smaller number of two-dimensional laser diode arrays than a conventionally pumped “once-through” solid-state laser system, and the extraterrestrial resonator is pumped by means of concentrated solar radiation. In practice, at least an order of magnitude fewer laser diodes and crystalline calcium fluoride gain media are needed to meet the requirements of a laser driver for an ICF reactor. If, finally, a liquid neodymium laser system could be used for an ICF reactor, the cooling of the gain slabs would be facilitated substantially.