Fusion experiments have begun at Antares

Abstract

Antares, the world's highest-power CO2 laser, was ceremonially dedicated at Los Alamos in January. Experiments had in fact begun a month earlier. The purpose of Antares is to evaluate the feasibility of CO2 lasers as drivers for inertial-confinement fusion. The system's 24 laser beams are focused onto a 100-micron-diameter deuterium-tritium target pellet, delivering 25-kilojoules of 10.6-micron, infrared light in nanosecond pulses. It is anticipated that Antares will eventually run at 40 kJ.