VOLUME IGNITION OF DT MICROSPHERES

Since the experiments on laser compression of pellets at the Institute of Laser Engineering (ILE) at Osaka University demonstrated that the highest gains were obtained if ideal adiabatic shock-free volume compr ession was used, a re-examination of the earlier work on volume compre ssion and volume ignition of fusion pellets has been performed. Using a detailed computation of the DT reaction, the role and relative magni tude of the deuterium-deuterium (DD) reaction has been evaluated. Here it will be shown in detail that for conditions where pellet ignition occurs the DD/DT ratio is small and nearly the same for different pell et volumes and pellet concentrations, although this ratio is volume an d density dependent.