Thermonuclear Ignition via Lasers and Prospects for Inertial Fusion Energy

Dr. Riccardo Betti
Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester, NY

Recent progress in both direct- and indirect-drive ICF (inertial confinement fusion) has considerably improved the prospects for achieving energy gains with megajoule-class lasers. Recent implosions on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) using the indirect-drive approach have achieved over 3 MJ of fusion yield, a target gain of 1.5x and core conditions that can be interpreted as ignition of the DT fuel. The next step is to better understand the factors most critical to increase the energy gains to achieve fusion yields of interest to the stockpile stewardship program and to inertial fusion energy. When hydrodynamically scaled to NIF laser energies, recent direct-drive implosions on OMEGA are expected to produce over a megajoule of fusion yield and about 85% of the Lawson triple product required for ignition. Those implosions have benefited from a significant increase in implosion performance obtained through a statistical approach used in designing OMEGA targets and laser pulse shapes. An overview of the status of laser ICF and prospects for short-term advances in inertial fusion energy will be presented.

Host: Gennady Shvets

Join us for a reception before the talk from 3:45 until 4:15 p.m.

About the speaker: Riccardo Betti (PhD) is the Robert L. McCrory Professor of Mechanical Engineering, with a secondary appointment as Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Rochester. He is also the Chief Scientist of the Laboratory for Laser Energetics. His research involves high temperature plasma physics with applications to nuclear fusion. He served as Chair of the Division of Plasma Physics of the American Physical Society, Vice Chair of the Fusion Energy Science Advisory Committee of the US Department of Energy, Chair of the Plasma Science Committee of the National Research Council and Member of the Board of Physics and Astronomy of the US National Academy of Science.  He received the Blaise Pascal Medal from the European Academy of Science, the Landau-Spitzer Award from the American and European Physical Societies, the Edward Teller Medal from the American Nuclear Society, the E.O. Lawrence Award from the U.S. Department of Energy, the Leadership Award from Fusion Power Associates, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the UR Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He co-authored over 300 peer reviewed papers and supervised over 30 postdoctoral fellows and graduate students. He received his Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1992.