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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.
David Bernat, Richard B. Stephens
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 31 | Number 4 | July 1997 | Pages 473-476
Technical Paper | Eleventh Target Fabrication Specialists' Meeting | doi.org/10.13182/FST97-A30804
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A long-standing problem in the characterization of multi-layered ICF capsules is the determination of the position of surfaces and interfaces from x-radiographic images. The accepted procedure for analyzing such images is to calculate the radial second derivative of x-ray absorption through a shell to locate the points of inflection in the absorption vs. radius plot which denote the layer interfaces. The computer routine developed in 1994 as an addition to NIH Image to perform this analysis was subject to unnecessary noise caused by calculating the radial finite second derivative (Δ2z/Δr2) from the interpolated radial points. Our most recent algorithm update solves this problem by directly determining the radial infinitesimal second derivative (d2z/dr2) of a cubic interpolation of surrounding pixels. This new procedure allows us to make reliable measurements of wall thickness vs. angle and layer uniformity, an improvement over the original method which only yielded layer thickness values averaged over all 360° of the shell.