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Fusion energy: Progress, partnerships, and the path to deployment
Over the past decade, fusion energy has moved decisively from scientific aspiration toward a credible pathway to a new energy technology. Thanks to long-term federal support, we have significantly advanced our fundamental understanding of plasma physics—the behavior of the superheated gases at the heart of fusion devices. This knowledge will enable the creation and control of fusion fuel under conditions required for future power plants. Our progress is exemplified by breakthroughs at the National Ignition Facility and the Joint European Torus.
Rasol Khoda-Bakhsh, Heinrich Horat†, George H. Miley, Robert J. Stening, Peter Pieruschka
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 22 | Number 1 | August 1992 | Pages 50-55
Technical Paper | D-3He/Fusion Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/FST92-A30053
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The realization of an ideal volume compression of laser-irradiated fusion pellets opens the possibility for an alternative to spark ignition; this has been proposed for many years for inertial confinement fusion. Using a detailed volume ignition computation of sources of reheat in deuterium-deuterium (D-D) reactions (alpha, proton, and tritium reheat), the result of the calculations show that D-D pellets can be utilized in the same way as in the deuterium-tritium reaction if higher compression can be achieved. Fusion gains of more than 80 are obtained with an initial temperature of only ∼3.0 keV, input energies close to 2.4 GJ, and initial compression at 30 000 times the solid-state density.