Magnetically-assisted ignition project on the National Ignition Facility
Abstract
We are planning a project to apply an external magnetic field to a high performing DT-layered implosion on the NIF. The magnetic field can reduce hot-spot losses through reduced electron thermal conduction and increased alpha particle confinement. In addition, it may suppress mix instabilities. Two dimensional simulations show that applying a >= 30 T field to an experiment already performed on NIF can lead to hot-spot conditions significantly in the self-heating regime. Magnetizing an indirect drive target requires development of specialized hohlraums with high electrical resistivity while maintaining good x-ray conversion of laser drive. This talk will review the key physics goals and project challenges and outline the research needed to perform a test which quantifies the magnetization improvement in the hot-spot conditions of a DT-layered implosion.
This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by LLNL under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.- Publication:
-
APS Division of Plasma Physics Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019APS..DPPTO6004M