Inertial confinement fusion target component fabrication and technology development support. Annual report, October 1, 1996--September 30, 1997

Abstract

This report documents the technical activities of the period October 1, 1996 through September 30, 1997. During this period, GA and their partner Schafer Corporation were assigned 13 formal tasks in support of the ICF program and its five laboratories. A portion of the effort on these tasks included providing direct {open_quotes}Onsite Support{close_quotes} at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), and Sandia National Laboratory Albuquerque (SNLA). Over 700 gold-plated hohlraum mandrels were fabricated and delivered to LLNL, LANL and SNLA. More than 1600 glass and plastic target capsules were produced for LLNL, LANL, SNLA and University of Rochester/Laboratory for Laser Energetics (UR/LLE). Nearly 2000 various target foils and films were delivered for Naval Research Lab (NRL) and UR/LLE in FY97. This report describes these target fabrication activities and the target fabrication and characterization development activities that made the deliveries possible. The ICF program is anticipating experiments at the OMEGA laser and the National Ignition Facility (NIF) which will require targets containing cryogenic layered D{sub 2} or deuterium-tritium (DT) fuel. This project is part of the National Cryogenic Target Program and support experiments at LLNL and LANL to generate and characterize cryogenic layers for these targets. During FY97, significant progress was made in the design and component testing of the OMEGA Cryogenic Target System that will field cryogenic targets on OMEGA. This included major design changes, reduction in equipment, and process simplifications. This report summarizes and documents the technical progress made on these tasks.