Researchers in NNSAs
Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) program create and measure extreme temperature, pressure, and radiation conditions to better understand how nuclear weapons would behave in various environments.
Inertial confinement fires an array of powerful lasers or particle beams at the hydrogen atoms to pressurize and superheat them.
The other common strategy for fusion is called
inertial confinement.
They are testing at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory with an
inertial confinement reactor.
It uses National Ignition Facility's laser beam for
inertial confinement fusion followed by utilizing the power from tubular solid fuel cell.
As the NIF Director, Herrmann will work closely with the leadership of the Stockpile Stewardship Program (SSP) across the weapons complex including the national
Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) Program, as well as the National Security Applications and Discovery Science communities in the United States and globally, to ensure optimal use of the facility and delivery on program goals.
Magnetic confinement fusion uses magnetic fields to trap the fuel in a magnetic 'bottle,' and
inertial confinement fusion heats the surface of the fuel pellet until it blows off in a way that causes the remaining pellet to implode.
This work reviews the science of nuclear fusion from the development of the basic scientific ideas concerning the role of fusion in the Sun and other stars to the current progress towards achieving human-controlled fusion energy, covering both the magnetic confinement approach towards insulating hot nuclear fuel with magnetic fields and the newer
inertial confinement approach that seeks to capture the fusion energy before the hot fuel has had a chance to expand.
They are not working on the well-publicised magnetic confinement approach to nuclear fusion which is building a facility called Iter in France but instead are preparing for
inertial confinement fusion, or "laser energy" as it is sometimes called.
Recommendation: To address the scientific and technical challenges and management weaknesses, and to enhance the NIC review committee's effectiveness, the Administrator of NNSA should direct the Director of the Office of
Inertial Confinement Fusion and National Ignition Facility Project to have the NIC review committee report to, and receive direction from, NNSA's Director of the Office of
Inertial Confinement Fusion and National Ignition Facility Project on its review activities, instead of reporting to Lawrence Livermore's laboratory Director.
High-power laser systems utilized for
inertial confinement fusion (ICF) research, such as the National Ignition Facility (NIF), at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Calif.
