Abstract
Inertial fusion has not yet been as well explored as magnetic fusion but can offer certain advantages as an alternative source of electric energy for the future. Present experiments use high-power beams from lasers and light-ion diodes to compress the deuterium-tritium (D-T) pellets but these will probably be unsuitable for a power plant. A more promising method is to use intense heavy-ion beams from accelerator systems similar to those used for nuclear and high-energy physics; the present paper addresses itself to this alternative. As will be demonstrated the very high beam power needed poses new design questions, from the ion-source through the accelerating system, the beam transport system, to the final focus. These problems will require extensive study, both theoretically and experimentally, over the next several years before an optimum design for an inertial fusion driver can be arrived at.
Prepared for the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract W-7405-ENG-48.
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References
Details of the work discussed here can be found in
Proc. ERDA Summer Study of Heavy Ions for Inertial Fusion, (Berkeley 1976) LBL-5543
Proc. Heavy Ion Fusion Workshop (Brookhaven 1977) BNL-50769
Proc. Heavy Ion Fusion Workshop (Argonne 1978) ANL-79-41
Proc. Workshop on High Current Phenomena (Berkeley 1979) to be published.
Recent comprehensive reviews include
Assessment of Drivers and Reactors for Inertial Confinement Fusion, K.A. Brueckner (ed.) EPRI AP-1371 (1980)
The Development of Heavy-Ion Accelerators as Drivers for Inertially Confined Fusion, W.B. Herrmannsfeldt, LBL-9332/SLAC-221 (1979)
Fusion Driven by Heavy Ion Beams, A. Pascolini and M. Pusterla, Univ. di Padova IFPD 11/80 (1980)
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Keefe, D., Sessler, A.M. (1980). Heavy Ion Inertial Fusion. In: Newman, W.S. (eds) 11th International Conference on High-Energy Accelerators. Experientia Supplementum, vol 40. Birkhäuser, Basel. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-5540-2_21
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-5540-2_21
Publisher Name: Birkhäuser, Basel
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