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Chicago, IL|Chicago Marriott Downtown
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Latest News
Smarter waste strategies: Helping deliver on the promise of advanced nuclear
At COP28, held in Dubai in 2023, a clear consensus emerged: Nuclear energy must be a cornerstone of the global clean energy transition. With electricity demand projected to soar as we decarbonize not just power but also industry, transport, and heat, the case for new nuclear is compelling. More than 20 countries committed to tripling global nuclear capacity by 2050. In the United States alone, the Department of Energy forecasts that the country’s current nuclear capacity could more than triple, adding 200 GW of new nuclear to the existing 95 GW by mid-century.
Chas. W. von Rosenberg, Jr.
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 21 | Number 3 | May 1992 | Pages 1600-1604
Inertial Fusion Driver | doi.org/10.13182/FST92-A29948
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The laser driver system we describe is coupled to the SOMBRERO reactor concept. This is the Inertial Fusion for Energy (IFE) design concept generated by the W.J. Schafer Team for a recent DOE study1. The nominal plant design has 1 GW electrical output and requires a KrF laser driver system that supplies 3.4 MJ per pulse onto a spherically symmetric, direct drive target, at a repetition rate of 6.7 pps. We describe an architecture which results from the constraints of what must be supplied at the target, coupled with a final amplifier design which makes use of e-beam pumped, angularly multiplexed, 60 kJ final amplifier cavities, recent technology advancements in e-beams and pulsed power, and which has been optimized for system efficiency. Driver system efficiency of more than 7% (“wall plug”), and an effective efficiency of more than 9%, obtained through utilization of laser waste heat, are projected.
