Ion accelerators as drivers for inertial confinement fusion

During the past few years the possibility of using intense ion beams to ignite a pellet of fusion fuel has looked increasingly promising. Ion beams ranging in mass from protons up to uranium have been investigated and several machines have been built a different laboratories to investigate the required technology. Light ion drivers are based on the use of high current, high current, high voltage diodes arranged around a central target. These devices have the necessary power and energy to initiate fusion burn but suffer from the inability to transport stably the necessary huge beam currents over long distances to a small target. Heavy ion drivers are based either on the radio-frequency linac or the induction linac. Because heavy ions have a much shorter range than light ions of the same energy, one is able to raise the beam voltage by a factor of one-thousand and lower the current correspondingly.