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At least 973 records · Page 54
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2026

Dielectric properties of neutron and proton irradiated polymeric nanocomposite insulation for superconducting magnets of fusion power plants

Studies on radiation-resistant electrical insulation for superconducting magnets of nuclear fusion power plants are discussed. Metal oxide nanoparticle-incorporated organic polymer composite (MONAP) insulation films were manufactured and studied for their dielectric breakdown strength after exposure to neutrons and proton radiation at varying levels. Samples with up to 5 wt% of nanoparticles (NPs) of SiO 2 , MgO, and ZrO 2 were studied. The samples were exposed to radiation of up to 2 × 10 16 neutrons/cm 2 and 200 Mrad of protons. The addition of the nanoparticles improved the radiation resistance of the MONAP, and the performance depended on the type of NPs and the radiation exposure. Dielectric breakdown measurements at 77 K showed little degradation. Enhancement of dielectric strength was observed in some instances.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

3D simulations of inertial confinement fusion implosions part 1: inline modeling of polarized cross beam energy transfer and subsequent drive anomalies on OMEGA and NIF

Inertial confinement fusion experiments are sensitive to cross-beam energy transfer (CBET), a laser-plasma instability that redistributes laser energy in the coronal plasma through self-generated ion acoustic wave (IAW) gratings. The detailed CBET coupling depends on the polarization state of the crossing wavefields. CBET itself can also scramble the beam polarizations by inducing ellipticity through the IAW grating, and rotating the seed polarization toward that of the pump. We develop a ray-based model that describes the polarized CBET coupling and that is compatible with the framework of 3D inline radiative hydrodynamics simulations. The model is implemented in the ASTER/IFRIIT code and verified against an academic test case and an offline polarized CBET post-processor. It is then applied to the detailed configuration of the distributed polarization rotator system on OMEGA, where results highlight how polarized CBET induces significant low modes in the collisional absorption source term. Finally, the modeling is applied to a simple indirect-drive configuration, comparing CBET calculations with 96 unpolarized or polarized beams with 24 unpolarized quads. It is shown that these cases produce similar power amplification per cone of beams grouped with similar polar angles. However, the 96 beam geometry itself is found to reduce azimuthal variations in quad power after the interaction and favors beams with larger polar angles within the cones, an effect that is amplified by the polarized CBET. Application of the model to inline calculations of OMEGA implosions are presented in a companion paper.

3D inline modeling↗
DOE OSTI2019

Ion beam analysis of fusion plasma-facing materials and components: facilities and research challenges

Following the IAEA Technical Meeting on 'Advanced Methodologies for the Analysis of Materials in Energy Applications Using Ion Beam Accelerators', our work reviews the current status of ion beam analysis (IBA) techniques and some aspects of ion-induced radiation damage in materials for the field of materials relevant to fusion. Available facilities, apparatus development, future research options and challenges are presented and discussed. The analysis of beryllium and radioactivity-containing samples from future experiments in JET or ITER represents not only an analytical but also a technical challenge. A comprehensive list of the facilities, their current status, and analytical capabilities comes alongside detailed descriptions of the labs. A discussion of future issues of sample handling and the current status of facilities at JET complete the technical section. To prepare the international IBA community for these challenges, the IAEA technical meeting finalizes the necessity for determining new nuclear reaction cross-sections and improving the inter-laboratory comparability by defining international standards and testing these via a round-robin test.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

DIII-D research advancing the physics basis for optimizing the tokamak approach to fusion energy

DIII-D physics research addresses critical challenges for the operation of ITER and the next generation of fusion energy devices. This is done through a focus on innovations to provide solutions for high performance long pulse operation, coupled with fundamental plasma physics understanding and model validation, to drive scenario development by integrating high performance core and boundary plasmas. Substantial increases in off-axis current drive efficiency from an innovative top launch system for EC power, and in pressure broadening for Alfven eigenmode control from a co-/counter-I p steerable off-axis neutral beam, all improve the prospects for optimization of future long pulse/steady state high performance tokamak operation. Fundamental studies into the modes that drive the evolution of the pedestal pressure profile and electron vs ion heat flux validate predictive models of pedestal recovery after ELMs. Understanding the physics mechanisms of ELM control and density pumpout by 3D magnetic perturbation fields leads to confident predictions for ITER and future devices. Validated modeling of high-Z shattered pellet injection for disruption mitigation, runaway electron dissipation, and techniques for disruption prediction and avoidance including machine learning, give confidence in handling disruptivity for future devices. For the non-nuclear phase of ITER, two actuators are identified to lower the L–H threshold power in hydrogen plasmas. With this physics understanding and suite of capabilities, a high poloidal beta optimized-core scenario with an internal transport barrier that projects nearly to Q = 10 in ITER at ~8 MA was coupled to a detached divertor, and a near super H-mode optimized-pedestal scenario with co-I p beam injection was coupled to a radiative divertor. The hybrid core scenario was achieved directly, without the need for anomalous current diffusion, using off-axis current drive actuators. Also, a controller to assess proximity to stability limits and regulate β N in the ITER baseline scenario, based on plasma response to probing 3D fields, was demonstrated. Finally, innovative tokamak operation using a negative triangularity shape showed many attractive features for future pilot plant operation.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Tungsten doped diamond shells for record neutron yield inertial confinement fusion experiments at the National Ignition Facility

We report on fabrication and characterization of layered, tungsten doped, spherical about 2 mm diameter microcrystalline diamond ablator shells for inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiments at the National Ignition Facility. As previously reported, diamond ICF ablator shells can be fabricated by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) on solid spherical silicon mandrels using an ellipsoidal microwave plasma reactor. In the present work, we further developed these ablator shells by embedding a W -doped diamond layer sandwiched between two undoped diamond regions. W incorporation in diamond was achieved by adding tungsten hexacarbonyl to the CH 4 /H 2 CVD feed gas. We observe that the W doping concentration decreases with increasing deposition rate which, in turn, is controlled by adjusting the total gas pressure. Cross sectional microstructural analysis reveals sharp interfaces between doped and undoped regions of the diamond shell and uniform W distribution with concentrations up to about 0.3 at.%. At higher W concentrations (>0.3 at.%) formation of tungsten carbide precipitates is observed. Using a 3-shock 1.6 MJ laser pulse, the targets described in this work produced the first laser driven implosion to break the 1 × 10 16 neutron yield barrier, followed by experiments (described in future publications) with similar targets and slightly more laser energy producing yields as high as 4 × 10 17 .

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Optimization of irradiation configuration using spherical t-designs for laser-direct-drive inertial confinement fusion

Abstract A new class of beam configurations is proposed for symmetric-direct-drive inertial confinement fusion laser systems. These configurations are based on spherical t -designs that are studied in spherical design theory in mathematics (Delsarte et al 1977 Geom. Dedicata 6 363). Employing t -design configurations offers elimination of spherical-harmonic intensity modulations for modes ℓ ⩽ t . Additionally, these configurations provide fast decay of intensity nonuniformities with increasing number of beams and symmetric intensity patterns on the surface of the target. Methods developed in spherical design theory offer a convenient, systematic way of obtaining beam configurations for an arbitrary number of beams.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Experimental, numerical and analytical evaluation of j × B -thrust for fast-liquid-metal-flow divertor systems of nuclear fusion devices

Abstract Divertor systems of fusion devices are exposed to intense heat loads from plasmas, which degrade solid plasma-facing components. Fast liquid metal (LM) flow divertors may be more advantageous for this purpose but have risk of piling due to intense magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) drag. However, severe deceleration of the flow could be countered with the injection of currents that are transverse to external magnetic fields, allowing to thrust the flow with j × B (Lorentz) forces. Given that the injection of currents as an approach to propel LM-divertor flows has remained experimentally understudied, this article focuses on the evaluation of j × B -thrust and finding its drawbacks. j × B -thrust was experimentally tested with free-surface-LM flows, a vertical magnetic field and an externally applied current. Experiments were reviewed with a theoretical model, showing agreement in the trends of theory and experiments. Full 3D-MHD-free-surface-flow simulations were also performed with FreeMHD and confirmed the sensitivity to unstable flow behavior in LM systems when applying external currents. Furthermore, excessive power requirements are expected for the implementation of j × B -thrust at the reactor scale, making these systems inefficient for commercial devices. This paper evidences that the simple operation of a LM-flow divertor with j × B -thrust, without any of the instabilities caused from reactor plasmas or parasitic currents, already presents intrinsic challenges.

Magnetohydrodynamics↗
DOE OSTI2024

Efficient ECCD non-inductive plasma current start-up, ramp-up, and sustainment for an ST fusion reactor

The elimination of the need for an Ohmic heating solenoid may be the most impactful design driver for the realization of economical compact fusion tokamak reactor systems. However, this would require fully non-inductive start-up and current ramp-up from zero plasma current and low electron temperature of sub-keV to the full plasma current of ~10–15 MA at 20–30 keV electron temperature. To address this challenge, an efficient solenoid-free start-up and ramp-up scenario utilizing a low-field-side-launched extraordinary mode at the fundamental electron cyclotron harmonic frequency (X–I) is proposed, which has more than two orders of magnitude higher electron cyclotron current drive (ECCD) efficiency than the conventional ECCD for the sub-keV start-up regime. A time dependent model was developed to simulate the start-up scenarios. For the Spherical Tokamak Advanced Reactor (STAR) (Menard et al 2023 Next-Step Low-Aspect-Ratio Tokamak Design Studies (IAEA)), it was found that to fully non-inductively ramp-up to 15 MA, it would take about 25 MW of EC power at 170 GHz. Because of the relatively large plasma volume of STAR, radiation losses must be considered. It is important to make sure that high Z impurities are kept sufficiently low during the early current start-up phase where the temperature is sub-keV range. Since the initial current ramp up takes place at a factor of ten lower density compared to the sustained regimes, it is important to transition into a higher bootstrap fraction discharge at lower density to minimize the ECCD power requirement during the densification. For the sustainment phase an array of eight gyrotron launchers with a total of about 60 MW of fundamental O-mode was found to be sufficient to provide the required axis-peaked external current drive. High efficiencies between 19–57 kA MW –1 were found with optimal aiming, and these were resilient to small changes in aiming angles and density and temperature profiles.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Comparison of chamber beam geometry robustness to mispointing, imbalance and target offset for direct-drive laser fusion facilities

This study focuses on the optimization of beam chamber geometry designs for future direct-drive laser facilities. It provides a review of leading target chamber geometries, with a particular emphasis on random errors. Through comprehensive solid-sphere illuminations and analysis, we identify an optimized beam geometry design, highlighting its robustness and performance under realistic experimental conditions. Three major sources of random errors are evaluated, closely linked to experimental evaluations at OMEGA. The findings underscore the importance of optimizing the irradiation system alongside beam pattern considerations to enhance the efficiency and reliability of inertial confinement fusion experiments. We conclude that for a desired illumination uniformity of 1% in the presence of system errors, the split icosahedron design is the most robust. However, for a 0.3% uniformity goal, the charged-particle, icosahedron, and t-sphere methods exhibit similar performance.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Real-time confinement regime detection in fusion plasmas with convolutional neural networks and high-bandwidth edge fluctuation measurements

Abstract A real-time detection of the plasma confinement regime can enable new advanced plasma control capabilities for both the access to and sustainment of enhanced confinement regimes in fusion devices. For example, a real-time indication of the confinement regime can facilitate transition to the high-performing wide-pedestal (WP) quiescent H-mode, or avoid unwanted transitions to lower confinement regimes that may induce plasma termination. To demonstrate real-time confinement regime detection, we use the 2D beam emission spectroscopy (BES) diagnostic system to capture localized density fluctuations of long wavelength turbulent modes in the edge region at a 1 MHz sampling rate. BES data from 330 discharges in either L-mode, H-mode, quiescent H (QH)-mode, or WP QH-mode were collected from the DIII-D tokamak and curated to develop a high-quality database to train a deep-learning classification model for real-time confinement detection. We utilize the 6×8 spatial configuration with a time window of 1024 µ s and recast the input to obtain spectral-like features via fast Fourier transform preprocessing. We employ a shallow 3D convolutional neural network for the multivariate time-series classification task and utilize a softmax in the final dense layer to retrieve a probability distribution over the different confinement regimes. Our model classifies the global confinement state on 44 unseen test discharges with an average F 1 score of 0.94, using only ∼1 ms snippets of BES data at a time. This activity demonstrates the feasibility for real-time data analysis of fluctuation diagnostics in future devices such as ITER, where the need for reliable and advanced plasma control is urgent.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Measurement of the sound velocity and Grüneisen parameter of polystyrene at inertial confinement fusion conditions

The principal Hugoniot, sound velocity, and Grüneisen parameter of polystyrene were measured at conditions relevant to shocks in inertial confinement fusion implosions, from 100 to 1000 GPa. The sound velocity is in good agreement with quantum molecular dynamics calculations and all tabular equation of state models at pressures below 200 GPa. Above 200 GPa, the experimental results agree with two of the examined tables, but do not agree with the most recent table developed for design of ICF experiments. The Grüneisen parameter increases with density below ~3.1 g/cm 3 and approaches the asymptotic value for an ideal gas after complete dissociation. This behavior is in good agreement with quantum molecular dynamics results and previous work but is not represented by any of the tabular models. Finally, the discrepancy between tabular models and experimental measurement of the sound velocity and Grüneisen parameter is sufficient to impact simulations of ICF experiments.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Inertial-confinement fusion-plasma-based cross-calibration of the deuterium-tritium γ-to-neutron branching ratio

The deuterium-tritium (D-T) γ -to-neutron branching ratio [ H 3 ( d , γ ) He 5 / H 3 ( d , n ) He 4 ] has been determined previously under inertial-confinement fusion (ICF) conditions and in beam-target based experiments. In the former case, neutron-induced backgrounds are mitigated compared to the latter due to the short pulse nature of ICF implosions and the use of gas Cherenkov γ -ray detectors. Furthermore, an added benefit of ICF based measurements is the ability to achieve lower center-of-mass energies as compared to accelerators. Previous ICF based experiments however report a large uncertainty in the D-T γ -to-neutron branching ratio of ≈ 48 % , which arises from the necessity of an absolute detector calibration and/or a cross-calibration against the D- He 3 γ -to-proton branching ratio. A more precise value for the branching ratio based on data taken at the OMEGA laser facility is reported here, which relies on a cross-calibration against the better known C 12 neutron inelastic scattering cross section. A D-T branching ratio value of ( 4.6 ± 0.6 ) × 10 - 5 is determined by this method.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Hybrid target design for imprint mitigation in direct-drive inertial confinement fusion

A target design for mitigating the Rayleigh-Taylor instability is proposed for use in high energy density and direct-drive inertial confinement fusion experiments. In this scheme, a thin gold membrane is offset from the main target by several-hundred microns. A strong picket on the drive beams is incident upon this membrane to produce x rays which generate the initial shock through the target. The main drive follows shortly thereafter, passing through the ablated shell and directly driving the main target. The efficacy of this scheme is demonstrated through experiments performed at the OMEGA EP facility, showing a reduction of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability growth which scales exponentially with frequency, suppressing development by at least a factor of 5 for all wavelengths below 100 μm. Furthermore, this results in a delay in the time of target perforation by ~40%.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Temperature distributions and gradients in laser-heated plasmas relevant to magnetized liner inertial fusion

We present two-dimensional temperature measurements of magnetized and unmagnetized plasma experiments performed at Z relevant to the preheat stage in magnetized liner inertial fusion. The deuterium gas fill was doped with a trace amount of argon for spectroscopy purposes, and time-integrated spatially resolved spectra and narrow-band images were collected in both experiments. The spectrum and image data were included in two separate multiobjective analysis methods to extract the electron temperature spatial distribution T e ( r , z ) . The results indicate that the magnetic field increases T e , the axial extent of the laser heating, and the magnitude of the radial temperature gradients. Comparisons with simulations reveal that the simulations overpredict the extent of the laser heating and underpredict the temperature. Temperature gradient scale lengths extracted from the measurements also permit an assessment of the importance of nonlocal heat transport.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Ionization state and dielectric constant in cold rarefied hydrocarbon plasmas of inertial confinement fusion

A combined approach to study cold rarefied matter is introduced that includes a semianalytical method based on the free-energy minimization and ab initio calculations based on the finite-temperature density-functional theory. The approach is used to calculate the ionization state of hydrocarbon (CH) under the shock-release conditions in inertial confinement fusion. Furthermore, the dielectric constant of CH is calculated using the Kubo-Greenwood formulation and contribution from atomic polarizabilities is found to be as important as the free-electron contribution. Using the ionization state and dielectric constant, the electron density profile in the rarefaction wave of the shock-release plasma is obtained.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Microphysics of shock-grain interaction for inertial confinement fusion ablators in a fluid approach

Ablator materials used for inertial confinement fusion, such as high-density carbon (HDC) and beryllium, have grain structure which may lead to small-scale density nonuniformity and the generation of perturbations when the materials are shocked and compressed. Here, we use a combination of a linear theory of shock interaction with density nonuniformity [Velikovich et al., Phys. Plasmas 14, 072706 (2007)] and numerical simulations to study shock interaction with a model representation of HDC grains. While the shock-grain interaction is nonlinear, the linear theory shows some key features of the shock-grain interaction, which also hold for the (nonlinear) simulations. The postshock perturbations are made up of sonic reflections off of grain boundaries and vorticity deposition along them, with the latter dominating the perturbed energy content. The mean (per mass) postshock perturbed kinetic energy decreases with increasing grain size, but energy will be deposited at increasing spatial scale. From the perspective of the postshock perturbed energy, the detailed linear theory largely supports a proposed method [S. Davidovits et al., Phys. Plasmas 29, 112708 (2022)] for deresolving the grains (in a similar grains model) that treats the grains statistically. Finally, our simulation results highlight the influence of thermal conduction on the perturbation dynamics at grain scales.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Applications of a Rayleigh-Taylor model to direct-drive laser fusion

Here, this paper presents a simple physics-based model for the interpretation of key metrics in laser direct drive. The only input parameters required are target scale, in-flight aspect ratio, and beam-to-target radius, and the importance of each has been quantified with a tailored set of cryogenic implosion experiments. These analyses lead to compact and accurate predictions of the fusion yield and areal density as a function of hydrodynamic stability, and suggest new ways to take advantage of direct drive. To provide examples, we will discuss how the inferred mix width behaves relative to theory, then show how it could be exploited to perform a direct drive implosion with a Lawson metric or Χ no α of 0.24 ± 0.02—using a novel parameter space at high velocities and beam radii on the OMEGA laser—that projects to ignition at a laser energy ≤2.0 MJ.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Nonequilibrium effects in high-gain inertial confinement fusion

Recent experimental demonstrations of ignition and target gain in inertial confinement fusion (ICF) have stimulated interest in exploring the fundamental physics of violent deuterium-tritium (DT) burn in high-gain ICF targets. A significant DT-burn fraction is a necessary condition for high energy gain and large neutron yields (>100MJ). Using classical molecular-dynamics (MD) simulations and a hybrid fluid-kinetic model, we examine how a large fraction of low-energy 𝛼 particles can kick D and T ions out of equilibrium in high-gain ICF targets. The MD results suggest that (1) temperatures of 𝑇 𝐷 and 𝑇 𝑇 can differ by as much as ∼20% of their mean temperature and (2) the deviation of the DT energy distribution from the Maxwell-Boltzmann function can exceed ∼30%. Some of these MD observations, such as the preferential heating of D ions by low-energy 𝛼 particles and the temperature separation, can be explained by a proposed hybrid fluid-kinetic model. Furthermore, the implication of such nonequilibrium effects on the DT reactivity is also discussed.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗