Last year, when the National Ignition Facility fired its 192 laser beams at a gold cylinder enclosing a tiny sphere of hydrogen isotopes, it did more than spark a historic fusion reaction.
—also triggered a burst of optimism among some fusion scientists that the same general approach could one day lead to a commercial power plant.
The companies pursuing ICF are small, with typically a few tens of millions of dollars each in backing. But they hope NIF’s breakthrough will bring more investors to their doors. “There’s general excitement from everyone you talk to, it’s just fantastic,” says Debra Callahan, who worked at NIF for 20 years before joining the startup Focused Energy, based in the United States and Germany.
For DOE’s researchers, more ICF studies with NIF and Omega, another laser fusion facility at the University of Rochester, are first on the agenda. “We need to understand the fundamental physics,” Ma says, and, most important, increase gain. Meanwhile, DOE scientists will assess which lasers or alternatives, such as ion beams, are worth pursuing and hone target designs as well.
Scientists will also have to figure out the best design for the fuel targets. Livermore has always favored enclosing the peppercorn-size hydrogen-filled capsules inside metal cylinders, which convert laser light into x-rays that then implode the fuel. In contrast, the Rochester laser lab has pioneered “direct drive”: firing the laser straight onto the capsule. This approach is more efficient, but it requires more perfect laser beams to get the fuel capsules to implode symmetrically.
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