Laser Design Basis for the National Ignition Facility

Controlled nuclear fusion initiated by highly intense laser beams has been the subject of experiment for many years. The National Ignition Facility (NIF) represents the culmination of design efforts to provide a laser facility that will successfully demonstrate fusion ignition in the laboratory. In this so-called inertial confinement approach, energetic driver beams (laser, X ray, or charged particle) heat the outer surface of a spherical capsule containing deuterium and tritium (DT) fuel. As the capsule surface explosively evaporates, reaction pressure compresses the DT fuel causing the central core of the fuel to reach extreme density and temperature. When the central temperature is high enough, DT fusion reactions occur. The energy released from these reactions further heats the compressed fuel, and fusion burn propagates outward through the colder regions of the capsule much more rapidly than the inertially confined capsule can expand. The resulting fusion reactions yield many times more energy than was absorbed from the driver beams. Figure 1 summarizes the inertial confinement fusion (ICF) process.