Nuclear imaging to diagnose and correct target-driver registration at high-repetition-rate for improved reactor efficiency
Inertial Confinement Fusion produces energy from a burning plasma lasting a fraction of a nanosecond. Power plant designs based on Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) will need to ignite targets 1-10 times a second, fired as projectiles into a chamber and delivering the driver to the target location. Driver asymmetry is known to impact ICF experiments at gain near unity and remains a candidate for primary yield degradation, and therefore fusion power plant energy output, for high-gain target designs. For a Fusion Power Plant (FPP), continuous and real-time monitoring of target performance provides an opportunity to stabilize or correct the target-driver registration. This requires x-ray and neutron imaging with a large field-of-view, sufficiently high resolution, fast analysis and to subtend a minimal solid angle. We introduce design criteria for such an imaging system that uses a coded aperture and time-gated, lens-coupled scintillators as a viable solution and outline the research steps required to field such a system. Integrating the imaging system into an IFE power plant as part of an active feedback loop could increase average power output by reducing the failure rate due to mis-aligned drivers with respect to the target.