Computational study of implosion physics and target design for the fast ignition experiment FIREX-I

Abstract

The fast ignition is an epoch-making scheme for inertial fusion energy. In this scheme, the formation of high-density DT fuel is one of the key issues which must be solved, because the implosion dynamics of the fast ignition target which is non-spherical with conical target is quite different from that of the conventional central ignition target. Some previous works showed the possibility of formation of high density core. But the effects of hydrodynamic instability and DT cryogenic target were not discussed in those works. In this paper, we simulate the whole implosion dynamics of a perturbed non-spherical DT cryogenic target, and evaluate the possibility of formation of high-density DT fuel using 2-D integrated implosion code PINOCO.