We have used the SHIVA laser system to accelerate carbon disks to speeds in excess of 100 km/sec. The 3KJ/3 ns pulse, on a 1 mm diameter spot of a single disk produced a conventional shock of about 5 MB. The laser energy can, however, be stored in kinetic motion of this accelerated disk and delivered (reconverted to thermal energy) upon impact with another carbon disk. This collision occurs in a time much shorter than the 3 ns pulse, thus acting as a power amplifier. The shock pressures measured upon impact are estimated to be in the 20 MB range, thus demonstrating the amplification power of this colliding disk technique in creating ultra-high pressures. Theory and computer simulations of this process will be discussed, and compared with the experiment.

A new integrated power and breeding blanket is described. The blanket incorporates features that make it suitable for synthetic fuel production. It is matched to the thermal and electrical requirements of the General atomic water-splitting process for producing hydrogen. The fusion reaction is the Tandem Mirror Reactor (TMR) using Mirror Advanced Reactor Study (MARS) physics. The canister blanket is a high temperature, pressure balanced, cross-flow heat exchanger contained within a low activity, independently cooled, moderate temperature, first wall structural envelope. The canister uses Li/sub 2/O as the moderator/breeder and helium as the coolant. In situ tritium control, combined with slip stream processing and self-healing permeation barriers, assures a hydrogen product essentially free of tritium. The blanket is particularly adapted to synfuels production but is equally useful for electricity production or co-generation.

The two-year Mirror Advanced Reactor Study (MARS) has resulted in the conceptual design of a commercial, electricity-producing fusion reactor based on tandem mirror confinement. The physics basis for the MARS reactor was developed through work in two highly coupled areas of plasma engineering: magnetics and plasma performance.