Status of PBFA II for Inertial Confinement Fusion with Light Ions

The Particle Beam Fusion Accelerator II (PBFA II) is being constructed at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) with initial operation scheduled for January 1986. PBFA II is the only facility currently under construction that has the possibility of achieving ignition or breakeven in the laboratory. It will deliver 1 to 2 MJ of lithium ions for experiments covering a wide range of Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) target designs. PBFA II will be used for studying weapons physics and implosion hydrodynamics in the near-term. In the early 1990s, we anticipte that PBFA II could be modified to produce a pulse-shaping option for exploring high-gain target physics. The achievement of high-gain may require a different accelerator. The potential advantages of pulsed power driven light ions for an energy application include very low cost, small size, small capital investment for an initial power plant, and greater than 20% efficiency for economical power production.