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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.
Ronald W. Petzoldt
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 34 | Number 3 | November 1998 | Pages 831-839
Inertial Fusion Technology | doi.org/10.13182/FST98-A11963716
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An experiment is being conducted at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to investigate and demonstrate the engineering feasibility of accurately • injecting and tracking IFE targets into a vacuum chamber. A helium gas gun is used to inject non-cryogenic, aluminum and delrin (plastic) target-sized projectiles. They are optically tracked at three locations using photodiodes. An essential part of this experiment is tracking each projectile's position and predicting when and where it will arrive close enough to the driver beam focal spot so that with active beam steering, IFE driver beams can accurately hit each target Although the standard deviation in projectile position in each lateral direction is about 2 mm, projectile position measurements 1 m from the gun barrel have been used to predict position measurements at 3 m from the barrel with standard deviation less than 100 μm in the lateral directions. These results are encouraging and meet the expected beam steering distance and target position prediction accuracy requirements for indirect drive IFE power plants. Later this year, we intend to combine this experiment with a focused ion beam experiment and use real time position calculations to steer the beam through a small hole in the projectile.