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Fusion Science and Technology
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Going Nuclear: Notes from the officially unofficial book tour
I work in the analytical labs at one of Europe’s oldest and largest nuclear sites: Sellafield, in northwestern England. I spend my days at the fume hood front, pipette in one hand and radiation probe in the other (and dosimeter pinned to my chest, of course). Outside the lab, I have a second job: I moonlight as a writer and public speaker. My new popular science book—Going Nuclear: How the Atom Will Save the World—came out last summer, and it feels like my life has been running at full power ever since.
S. W. Haan, D. S. Clark, S. H. Baxamusa, J. Biener, L. Berzak Hopkins, T. Bunn, D. A. Callahan, L. Carlson, T. R. Dittrich, M. J. Edwards, B. A. Hammel, A. Hamza, D. E. Hinkel, D. D. Ho, D. Hoover, W. Hsing, H. Huang, O. A. Hurricane, M. A. Johnson, O. S. Jones, A. L. Kritcher, O. L. Landen, J. D. Lindl, M. M. Marinak, A. J. MacKinnon, N. B. Meezan, J. Milovich, A. Nikroo, J. L. Peterson, P. Patel, H. F. Robey, J. D. Salmonson, V. A. Smalyuk, B. K. Spears, M. Stadermann, S. V. Weber, J. L. Kline, D. C. Wilson, A. N. Simakov, A. Yi
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 70 | Number 2 | August-September 2016 | Pages 121-126
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST15-244
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Experiments and analysis in the 3 years since the 2012 Target Fabrication Meeting have resulted in significant improvement in understanding of the requirements for high-performance layered implosions. Three issues have been identified that significantly degrade the performance of the implosions as they were originally configured for National Ignition Facility experiments: capsule support system, time-dependent radiation asymmetry, and transverse oxygen nonuniformity in the glow discharge polymer (GDP) ablator. Analyses suggest that the shortfalls in these three areas can explain the degraded performance of the National Ignition Campaign implosions. We present the status of work toward curing these three problems in the standard GDP ablator/gold hohlraum configuration as they affect target fabrication priorities. We also summarize the prospects for alternate ablators that might reduce these degradation mechanisms.