Overview of Recent Tritium Target Filling, Layering, and Material Testing at Los Alamos National Laboratory in Support of Inertial Fusion Experiments

The Tritium Science and Engineering (AET-3) Group at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) performs a variety of activities to support Inertial Fusion (IF) research - both to further fundamental fusion science and to develop technologies in support of Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) power generation.

Inertial fusion ignition target designs have a smooth spherical shell of cryogenic Deuterium-Tritium (DT) solid contained within a metal or plastic shell that is a few mm in diameter. Fusion is attained by imploding these shells under the symmetric application of energy beams. For IFE targets the DT solid must also survive the process of injecting it into the power plant reactor. Non-ignition IF targets often require a non-cryogenic DT gas fill of a glass or polymeric shell. In this paper an overview will be given of recent LANL activities to study cryogenic DT layering, observe tritium exposure effects on IF relevant materials, and fill targets in support of IF implosion experiments.