Inertial fusion power plant - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

An inertial fusion power plant is intended to produce electric power by use of inertial confinement fusion

Inertial confinement fusion

Inertial confinement fusion is a process where nuclear fusion reactions are initiated by heating and compressing a fuel target, typically in the form of a pellet that most often contains a mixture of deuterium and tritium....

techniques on an industrial scale. This type of power plant is still in a research phase.

Two established options for possible medium-term implementation of fusion energy production are magnetic confinement

Magnetic confinement fusion

Magnetic confinement fusion is an approach to generating fusion power that uses magnetic fields to confine the hot fusion fuel in the form of a plasma. Magnetic confinement is one of two major branches of fusion energy research, the other being inertial confinement fusion. The magnetic approach is...

- being used in the ITER international project - and laser-based inertial confinement, as used in the United States' NIF

National Ignition Facility

The National Ignition Facility, or NIF is a large, laser-based inertial confinement fusion research device located at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California. NIF uses powerful lasers to heat and compress a small amount of hydrogen fuel to the point where nuclear fusion...

. Inertial confinement fusion

Inertial confinement fusion

(ICF), including heavy ion inertial fusion (HIF) has been proposed as a possible additional means of implementing a fusion power plant.

Overall principles of an Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) reactor

For an easier understanding, it is worth using the analogy of operation between an IFE reactor and a gasoline engine

Internal combustion engine

The internal combustion engine is an engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer in a combustion chamber. In an internal combustion engine, the expansion of the high-temperature and high -pressure gases produced by combustion apply direct force to some component of the engine...

. By applying such an analogy, the process may be seen as a four strokes cycle:

intake of the fusion fuel (microcapsule) into the reactor chamber;
compression of the microcapsule in order to initiate the fusion reactions;
explosion of the plasma created during the compression stroke, leading to the release of fusion energy;
exhaust of the reaction residue, which will be treated afterwards to extract all the reusable elements, mainly tritium.

To allow such an operation, an inertial fusion reactor is made of several subsets:

the injection system, which delivers to the reaction chamber the fusion fuel capsules, and at the same time the possible devices necessary to initiate fusion:
- the container (hohlraum
  Hohlraum
  In radiation thermodynamics, a hohlraum is a cavity whose walls are in radiative equilibrium with the radiant energy within the cavity. This idealized cavity can be approximated in practice by making a small perforation in the wall of a hollow container of any opaque material...
  
  ), intended to take the fuel capsule to a uniform very high temperature, mainly for laser and ion beam confinement techniques;
- the "wires array" and its power transmission line, for z-pinch
  Z-pinch
  In fusion power research, the Z-pinch, also known as zeta pinch or Bennett pinch , is a type of plasma confinement system that uses an electrical current in the plasma to generate a magnetic field that compresses it...
  
  confinement technique;
the "driver" used to compress the fusion fuel capsules; depending on the technique, it can be:
- laser
  Laser
  A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of photons. The term "laser" originated as an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation...
  
  s;
- an ion beam accelerator;
- a z-pinch device;
the reaction chamber, built upon:
- an external wall made of metal;
- an internal blanket intended to protect the external wall from the fusion shockwave and radiation, to get the emitted energy, and to produce the tritium fuel;
the system intended to process reaction products and debris.

IFE projects

Several projects of inertial fusion power plants have been proposed, notably power production plans based on the following experimental devices, either in operation or under construction:

in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

there exists the 4D-Pinch called Pulsotrón;http://www.pulsotron.net/english.htm
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, the National Ignition Facility
National Ignition Facility
The National Ignition Facility, or NIF is a large, laser-based inertial confinement fusion research device located at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California. NIF uses powerful lasers to heat and compress a small amount of hydrogen fuel to the point where nuclear fusion...

(laser confinement) and Z machine
Z machine
The Z machine is the largest X-ray generator in the world and is designed to test materials in conditions of extreme temperature and pressure. Operated by Sandia National Laboratories, it gathers data to aid in computer modeling of nuclear weapons...

(z-pinch confinement) experiments;
in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, the Megajoule laser experiment;
in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

(Osaka
Osaka
is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...

University), the KONGOH experiment (laser confinment).

As may be noted, only first two of these projects is based on z-pinch confinement, all others being based on laser confinement techniques.

The various phases of such a project are the following :

burning demonstration: reproducible achievement of energy release.
high gain demonstration: experimental demonstration of the feasibility of a reactor with a sufficient energy gain.
industrial demonstration: validation of the various technical options, and of the whole data needed to define a commercial reactor.
commercial demonstration: demonstration of the reactor ability to work over a long period, while respecting all the requirements for safety, liability and cost.

At the moment, according to the available data, inertial confinement fusion experiments have not gone beyond the first phase, as well for laser (although it is strongly expected to reach the objectives of the second phase around 2010, when NIF and Megajoule are complete) as for z-pinch (Z machine); these techniques should now demonstrate their ability to obtain a high fusion energy gain, as well as their capability for repetitive working.

Overall principles of an Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) reactor

IFE projects

See also

Generalities about IFE

Inertial fusion experimentation sites

IFE projects