The Next ICF Facilities

Recent NAS and FPAC reviews of the ICF Program contain recommendations that, if implemented, will greatly impact the ICF Program. Target physics studies and experiments have indicated that ignition and gain may be achieved with 1.5 to 2.0 MJ of driver energy. It has, therefore, been recommended that the Nova facility be upgraded to this energy and undertake ignition experiments by the end of the decade. A specific set of target physics, driver development, and target fabrication milestones have been recommended leading to this facility and to the ignition experiments. Similar recommendations were made concerning the OMEGA Upgrade, the Nike laser, heavy ion reactor driver development and IFE reactor technology. Carrying out these recommendations successfully would lead to major ICF decisions about an LMF for military applications and an ETF for energy applications about the year 2000.