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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.
Chris Weber, Bradley Motl, Jason Oakley, Mark Anderson, Riccardo Bonazza
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 56 | Number 1 | July 2009 | Pages 460-464
IFE Drivers and Chambers | Eighteenth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (Part 1) | doi.org/10.13182/FST09-A8945
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The growth of an interfacial perturbation after acceleration by a shock wave, known as the Richtmyer-Meshkov instability (RMI), plays an important role in the compression of an ICF target. Experiments studying the RMI are performed in a vertical shock tube by observing the growth of the interface between a pair of gases after acceleration by a planar shock wave. A near 2D, sinusoidal, membraneless interface is created in a shock tube by oscillating rectangular pistons at the stagnation plane between the two gases. The interface is visualized by seeding one of the gases with acetone, smoke, or atomized oil and observing the fluorescence or Mie scattering from a planar laser sheet. The results presented here span a range of Atwood numbers, 0.30<A<0.95, and shock wave strengths, 1.1<M<3. Numerical simulations of the experimental conditions are performed and compared with the experiments using the 2D hydrodynamics code Raptor (LLNL).