Abstract
The presentation will describe the current status of modelling short and long pulse laser irradiation and its application to inertial fusion designs. Recent results will be described which give confidence in the modelling in specific regimes. An update will be given of the AWE ORION laser facility and the availability planned for academic access.
Highlights
Following the demonstration of the Laser in 1960, many laboratories considered the possibility of achieving fusion through laser heating of a DT plasma
During that decade the production of X-rays associated with laser irradiation, of high-Z targets, became a topic of particular study as it offered the near-term prospect of studying aspects of weapon physics
The conversion to thermal X-rays offered a route to achieving fusion but higher energy seemed to be needed so experiments were proposed using the environment of an underground nuclear test
Summary
Following the demonstration of the Laser in 1960, many laboratories considered the possibility of achieving fusion through laser heating of a DT plasma. During the 00 s decade this contract was re-competed and the contractor changed, in the same decade the case for ORION was accepted and construction started in 2006 This was coupled with an agreement between US and UK governments which provided access to NIF. We have used the OMEGA laser at Rochester for a variety of studies, some of which will be described in this paper In this last decade, ignition has become a real possibility and we have started to re-examine this approach and some of the implications that would follow from success (for example Inertial Fusion Energy, IFE)
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