Inertial fusion energy target injection, tracking, and beam pointing (open access)

Inertial fusion energy target injection, tracking, and beam pointing

Several cryogenic targets must be injected each second into a reaction chamber. Required target speed is about 100 m/s. Required accuracy of the driver beams on target is a few hundred micrometers. Fuel strength is calculated to allow acceleration in excess of 10,000 m/s{sup 2} if the fuel temperature is less than 17 K. A 0.1 {mu}m thick dual membrane will allow nearly 2,000 m/s{sup 2} acceleration. Acceleration is gradually increased and decreased over a few membrane oscillation periods (a few ms), to avoid added stress from vibrations which could otherwise cause a factor of two decrease in allowed acceleration. Movable shielding allows multiple targets to be in flight toward the reaction chamber at once while minimizing neutron heating of subsequent targets. The use of multiple injectors is recommended for redundancy which increases availability and allows a higher pulse rate. Gas gun, rail gun, induction accelerator, and electrostatic accelerator target injection devices are studied, and compared. A gas gun is the preferred device for indirect-drive targets due to its simplicity and proven reliability. With the gas gun, the amount of gas required for each target (about 10 to 100 mg) is acceptable. A revolver loading mechanism is recommended with a …
Date: March 7, 1995
Creator: Petzoldt, R.W.
System: The UNT Digital Library