Inertial Confinement Fusion Driven Thermonuclear Energy

This chapter gives an elementary account of thermal physics. The subject is simple, the methods are powerful, and the results have broad applications. Probably no other physical theory is used more widely throughout science and engineering. In order to study plasma physics and its behavior for a source of driving fusion for a controlled thermonuclear reaction for purpose of generating energy, in particular using high power laser or particle beam source, requires understanding of the fundamental knowledge of thermal physics and statistical mechanics theory as part of an essential education. As part of this education, we need to have better concept of the equation of state, for ideal gases, which proves to be central to the development of early molecular and atomic physics. In our case, it will lay down the ground for laser or high energy particle beam compression of matter to super-high densities: Thermonuclear applications, an event that in nature, take place at extraterrestrial in stars and surface of the sun and terrestrially in nuclear explosion.

In order to study plasma physics and its behavior for a source of driving fusion in a controlled thermonuclear reaction for purpose of generating energy, understanding of the fundamental knowledge of electromagnetic theory is essential. In this chapter, we introduce Maxwell equations and Coulomb’s barrier or Tunnel effects for better understanding of plasma behavior for confinement purpose. The controlled thermonuclear reaction for generating clean energy that is confined magnetically or inertially requires some basic understanding of physics and mathematics rules and knowledge. We are mainly concerned with confinement of plasmas at terrestrial temperature, e.g., very hot plasmas, where primarily of interest is in application to controlled fusion research in magnetic confinement reactors such as tokomak or using high-power laser or high-energy particles for purpose of inertial confinement fusion. Dimensional analysis and self-similarity allow us to have better understanding of implosion and explosion process in case of lateral confinement approach. This chapter is walking through some of the essentials that one needs to know for the process of inertial confinement in particular as subject of this book, which are all about.

There has been much progress in the development of high intensity lasers and in the science of laser-driven inertially confined fusion such that ignition is now a near term prospect. Fusion of nuclear energy refers to the phenomenon in which two or more light atomic nuclei combine to form a heavier atomic nucleus. These reactions of nuclei with low atomic numbers are exothermic. Fusion process in the nature as means of energy source can be observed in the Sun and stars. The man made of such energy source on earth was observed in 1952 as a large amount of nuclear fusion was achieved for the first time on our planted by a thermonuclear explosion, by utilizing fusion reactions in a mixture of Deuterium (D) and Tritium (T). Since then, research work has sought ways of using controlled nuclear fusion energy for peaceful needs. As water in the oceans contains one deuteron for every 6000 protons, the oceans are in inexhaustible source of nuclear fusion energy.

Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF), in recent years has raised a lot of interest beyond just the national laboratories in United State and abroad. The ICF aim is toward producing clean energy, using high-energy laser beam or for that matter a particle beam (i.e., the particle beam may consist of heavy or light ion beam) to drive a pellet of two isotopes of hydrogen to fuse and release energy. There are two basic approaches to achieve the desired controlled thermonuclear fusion, namely, Magnetic Confinement Fusion (MCF) and Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) and in this book, we talk about the lateral methodology and particularly in this chapter, and we will discuss possible way of achieving ICF for generating energy via controlled thermonuclear fusion process.