Capsule Performance Optimization in the National Ignition Campaign

Capsule Performance Optimization in the National Ignition Campaign PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 33

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Capsule Performance Optimization in the National Ignition Campaign

Capsule Performance Optimization in the National Ignition Campaign PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 33

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Book Description


Capsule Implosion Optimization During the Indirect-Direct National Ignition Campaign

Capsule Implosion Optimization During the Indirect-Direct National Ignition Campaign PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 130

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Issues in Nuclear, High Energy, Plasma, Particle, and Condensed Matter Physics: 2011 Edition

Issues in Nuclear, High Energy, Plasma, Particle, and Condensed Matter Physics: 2011 Edition PDF Author:
Publisher: ScholarlyEditions
ISBN: 1464963657
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 2502

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Book Description
Issues in Nuclear, High Energy, Plasma, Particle, and Condensed Matter Physics: 2011 Edition is a ScholarlyEditions™ eBook that delivers timely, authoritative, and comprehensive information about Nuclear, High Energy, Plasma, Particle, and Condensed Matter Physics. The editors have built Issues in Nuclear, High Energy, Plasma, Particle, and Condensed Matter Physics: 2011 Edition on the vast information databases of ScholarlyNews.™ You can expect the information about Nuclear, High Energy, Plasma, Particle, and Condensed Matter Physics in this eBook to be deeper than what you can access anywhere else, as well as consistently reliable, authoritative, informed, and relevant. The content of Issues in Nuclear, High Energy, Plasma, Particle, and Condensed Matter Physics: 2011 Edition has been produced by the world’s leading scientists, engineers, analysts, research institutions, and companies. All of the content is from peer-reviewed sources, and all of it is written, assembled, and edited by the editors at ScholarlyEditions™ and available exclusively from us. You now have a source you can cite with authority, confidence, and credibility. More information is available at http://www.ScholarlyEditions.com/.

High Resolution Simulations of Ignition Capsule Designs for the National Ignition Facility

High Resolution Simulations of Ignition Capsule Designs for the National Ignition Facility PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 54

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Book Description
Ignition capsule designs for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) [G.H. Miller, E.I. Moses, and C.R. Wuest, Opt. Eng. 443, 2841 (2004)] have continued to evolve in light of improved physical data inputs, improving simulation techniques, and - most recently - experimental data from a growing number of NIF sub-ignition experiments. This paper summarizes a number of recent changes to the cryogenic capsule design and some of our latest techniques in simulating its performance. Specifically, recent experimental results indicated harder x-ray drive spectra in NIF hohlraums than were predicted and used in previous capsule optimization studies. To accommodate this harder drive spectrum, a series of high-resolution 2-D simulations, resolving Legendre mode numbers as high as two thousand, were run and the germanium dopant concentration and ablator shell thicknesses re-optimized accordingly. Simultaneously, the possibility of cooperative or nonlinear interaction between neighboring ablator surface defects has motivated a series of fully 3-D simulations run with the massively parallel HYDRA code. These last simulations include perturbations seeded on all capsule interfaces and can use actual measured shell surfaces as initial conditions. 3-D simulations resolving Legendre modes up to two hundred on large capsule sectors have run through ignition and burn, and higher resolution simulations resolving as high as mode twelve hundred have been run to benchmark high-resolution 2-D runs. Finally, highly resolved 3-D simulations have also been run of the jet-type perturbation caused by the fill tube fitted to the capsule. These 3-D simulations compare well with the more typical 2-D simulations used in assessing the fill tube's impact on ignition. Coupled with the latest experimental inputs from NIF, our improving simulation capability yields a fuller and more accurate picture of NIF ignition capsule performance.

Assessment of Inertial Confinement Fusion Targets

Assessment of Inertial Confinement Fusion Targets PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309270626
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 119

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Book Description
In the fall of 2010, the Office of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Secretary for Science asked for a National Research Council (NRC) committee to investigate the prospects for generating power using inertial confinement fusion (ICF) concepts, acknowledging that a key test of viability for this concept-ignition -could be demonstrated at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in the relatively near term. The committee was asked to provide an unclassified report. However, DOE indicated that to fully assess this topic, the committee's deliberations would have to be informed by the results of some classified experiments and information, particularly in the area of ICF targets and nonproliferation. Thus, the Panel on the Assessment of Inertial Confinement Fusion Targets ("the panel") was assembled, composed of experts able to access the needed information. The panel was charged with advising the Committee on the Prospects for Inertial Confinement Fusion Energy Systems on these issues, both by internal discussion and by this unclassified report. A Panel on Fusion Target Physics ("the panel") will serve as a technical resource to the Committee on Inertial Confinement Energy Systems ("the Committee") and will prepare a report that describes the R&D challenges to providing suitable targets, on the basis of parameters established and provided to the Panel by the Committee. The Panel on Fusion Target Physics will prepare a report that will assess the current performance of fusion targets associated with various ICF concepts in order to understand: 1. The spectrum output; 2. The illumination geometry; 3. The high-gain geometry; and 4. The robustness of the target design. The panel addressed the potential impacts of the use and development of current concepts for Inertial Fusion Energy on the proliferation of nuclear weapons information and technology, as appropriate. The Panel examined technology options, but does not provide recommendations specific to any currently operating or proposed ICF facility.

Progress Toward Ignition on the National Ignition Facility

Progress Toward Ignition on the National Ignition Facility PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 6

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Book Description
The principal approach to ignition on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) is indirect drive. A schematic of an ignition target is shown in Figure 1. The laser beams are focused through laser entrance holes at each end of a high-Z cylindrical case, or hohlraum. The lasers irradiate the hohlraum walls producing x-rays that ablate and compress the fuel capsule in the center of the hohlraum. The hohlraum is made of Au, U, or other high-Z material. For ignition targets, the hohlraum is H".5 cm diameter by H" cm in length. The hohlraum absorbs the incident laser energy producing x-rays for symmetrically imploding the capsule. The fuel capsule is a H"--Mm-diameter spherical shell of CH, Be, or C filled with DT fuel. The DT fuel is in the form of a cryogenic layer on the inside of the capsule. X-rays ablate the outside of the capsule, producing a spherical implosion. The imploding shell stagnates in the center, igniting the DT fuel. NIC has overseen installation of all of the hardware for performing ignition experiments, including commissioning of approximately 50 diagnostic systems in NIF. The diagnostics measure scattered optical light, x-rays from the hohlraum over the energy range from 100 eV to 500 keV, and x-rays, neutrons, and charged particles from the implosion. An example of a diagnostic is the Magnetic Recoil Spectrometer (MRS) built by a collaboration of scientists from MIT, UR-LLE, and LLNL shown in Figure 2. MRS measures the neutron spectrum from the implosion, providing information on the neutron yield and areal density that are metrics of the quality of the implosion. Experiments on NIF extend ICF research to unexplored regimes in target physics. NIF can produce more than 50 times the laser energy and more than 20 times the power of any previous ICF facility. Ignition scale hohlraum targets are three to four times larger than targets used at smaller facilities, and the ignition drive pulses are two to five times longer. The larger targets and longer pulse lengths produce unique plasma conditions for laser-plasma instabilities that could reduce hohlraum coupling efficiency. Initial experiments have demonstrated efficient coupling of laser energy to x-rays. X-ray drive greater than 300 eV has been measured in gas-filled ignition hohlraum and shows the expected scaling with laser energy and hohlraum scale size. Experiments are now optimizing capsule implosions for ignition. Ignition conditions require assembling the fuel with sufficient density and temperature for thermonuclear burn. X-rays ablate the outside of the capsule, accelerating and spherically compressing the capsule for assembling the fuel. The implosion stagnates, heating the central core and producing a hot spot that ignites and burns the surrounding fuel. The four main characteristics of the implosion are shell velocity, central hot spot shape, fuel adiabat, and mix. Experiments studying these four characteristics of implosions are used to optimize the implosion. Integrated experiments using cryogenic fuel layer experiments demonstrate the quality of the implosion as the optimization experiments progress. The final compressed fuel conditions are diagnosed by measuring the x-ray emission from the hot core and the neutrons and charged particles produced in the fusion reactions. Metrics of the quality of the implosion are the neutron yield and the shell areal density, as well as the size and shape of the core. The yield depends on the amount of fuel in the hot core and its temperature and is a gauge of the energy coupling to the fuel. The areal density, the density of the fuel times its thickness, diagnoses the fuel assembly, which is measured using the fraction of neutrons that are down scattered passing through the dense shell. The yield and fraction of down scattered neutrons, or shell rho-r, from the cryogenic layered implosions are shown in Figure 3. The different sets of data represent results after a series of implosion optimization experiments. Both yield and areal density show significant increases as a result of the optimization. The experimental Ignition Threshold Factor (ITFX) is a measure of the progress toward ignition. ITFX is analogous to the Lawson Criterion in Magnetic Fusion. Implosions have improved by over a factor of 50 since the first cryogenic layered experiments were done in September 2010. This increase is a measure of the progress made toward the ignition goal in the past year. Optimization experiments are planned in the coming year for continued improvement in implosion performance to achieve the ignition goal. In summary, NIF has made significant progress toward ignition in the 30 months since project completion. Diagnostics and all of the supporting equipment are in place for ignition experiments. The Ignition Campaign is under way as a national collaborative effort of all the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) science laboratories as well as international partners.

National Ignition Campaign (NIC) Precision Tuning Series Shock Timing Experiments

National Ignition Campaign (NIC) Precision Tuning Series Shock Timing Experiments PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 7

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Book Description
A series of precision shock timing experiments have been performed on NIF. These experiments continue to adjust the laser pulse shape and employ the adjusted cone fraction (CF) in the picket (1st 2 ns of the laser pulse) as determined from the re-emit experiment series. The NIF ignition laser pulse is precisely shaped and consists of a series of four impulses, which drive a corresponding series of shock waves of increasing strength to accelerate and compress the capsule ablator and fuel layer. To optimize the implosion, they tune not only the strength (or power) but also, to sub-nanosecond accuracy, the timing of the shock waves. In a well-tuned implosion, the shock waves work together to compress and heat the fuel. For the shock timing experiments, a re-entrant cone is inserted through both the hohlraum wall and the capsule ablator allowing a direct optical view of the propagating shocks in the capsule interior using the VISAR (Velocity Interferometer System for Any Reflector) diagnostic from outside the hohlraum. To emulate the DT ice of an ignition capsule, the inside of the cone and the capsule are filled with liquid deuterium.

Performance Metrics for Inertial Confinement Fusion Implosions

Performance Metrics for Inertial Confinement Fusion Implosions PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 21

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Book Description
The National Ignition Campaign (NIC) uses non-igniting 'THD' capsules to study and optimize the hydrodynamic assembly of the fuel without burn. These capsules are designed to simultaneously reduce DT neutron yield and to maintain hydrodynamic similarity with the DT ignition capsule. We will discuss nominal THD performance and the associated experimental observables. We will show the results of large ensembles of numerical simulations of THD and DT implosions and their simulated diagnostic outputs. These simulations cover a broad range of both nominal and off nominal implosions. We will focus on the development of an experimental implosion performance metric called the experimental ignition threshold factor (ITFX). We will discuss the relationship between ITFX and other integrated performance metrics, including the ignition threshold factor (ITF), the generalized Lawson criterion (GLC), and the hot spot pressure (HSP). We will then consider the experimental results of the recent NIC THD campaign. We will show that we can observe the key quantities for producing a measured ITFX and for inferring the other performance metrics. We will discuss trends in the experimental data, improvement in ITFX, and briefly the upcoming tuning campaign aimed at taking the next steps in performance improvement on the path to ignition on NIF.

Assessment of Inertial Confinement Fusion Targets

Assessment of Inertial Confinement Fusion Targets PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309270707
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 119

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Book Description
In the fall of 2010, the Office of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Secretary for Science asked for a National Research Council (NRC) committee to investigate the prospects for generating power using inertial confinement fusion (ICF) concepts, acknowledging that a key test of viability for this concept-ignition -could be demonstrated at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in the relatively near term. The committee was asked to provide an unclassified report. However, DOE indicated that to fully assess this topic, the committee's deliberations would have to be informed by the results of some classified experiments and information, particularly in the area of ICF targets and nonproliferation. Thus, the Panel on the Assessment of Inertial Confinement Fusion Targets ("the panel") was assembled, composed of experts able to access the needed information. The panel was charged with advising the Committee on the Prospects for Inertial Confinement Fusion Energy Systems on these issues, both by internal discussion and by this unclassified report. A Panel on Fusion Target Physics ("the panel") will serve as a technical resource to the Committee on Inertial Confinement Energy Systems ("the Committee") and will prepare a report that describes the R&D challenges to providing suitable targets, on the basis of parameters established and provided to the Panel by the Committee. The Panel on Fusion Target Physics will prepare a report that will assess the current performance of fusion targets associated with various ICF concepts in order to understand: 1. The spectrum output; 2. The illumination geometry; 3. The high-gain geometry; and 4. The robustness of the target design. The panel addressed the potential impacts of the use and development of current concepts for Inertial Fusion Energy on the proliferation of nuclear weapons information and technology, as appropriate. The Panel examined technology options, but does not provide recommendations specific to any currently operating or proposed ICF facility.

The NIF Ignition Program

The NIF Ignition Program PDF Author: B. A. Hammel
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 13

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Book Description
The first experimental campaign for ignition, beginning in 2010 after NIF construction and commissioning are completed, will include experiments to measure and optimize key laser and target conditions necessary for ignition. These ''tuning campaigns'' will precede the first ignition shots. Ignition requires acceptable target performance in several key areas: Energetics, Symmetry, Shock timing, and Capsule Hydrodynamics. Detailed planning and simulations for ''tuning campaigns'' in each of these areas is currently underway, as part of the National Ignition Campaign (NIC) Program. Tuning and diagnostic methods are being developed and tested on present facilities, including the Omega laser at the Laboratory for Energetics (LLE), the Z facility at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), and the Trident laser at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).