The role of the National Ignition Facility in energy production from inertial fusion

The 1993 declassification of virtually all inertial confinement fusion (ICF ) target information relevant to fusion energy development, and demonstrabl e successes in the physics and technology related to ICF, have laid the gro und work for a development plan for an Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) program me. The ICF programme, funded by the Defense Program in the USA, has clearl y demonstrated there is sufficient confidence in ignition and gain to proce ed with construction of the National Ignition Facility, which will test the detailed physics of targets suitable for IFE. In September 1998, the facil ity was about 40% complete and on schedule and within budget for completion in 2003. X-ray-drive ignition is planned for 2007, followed by direct-driv e ignition experiments. The other major elements of an IFE development prog ramme, namely, driver, target factory, and target chamber developments can be investigated separately in affordable programmes. Although much work rem ains, there are concepts for adequately high driver efficiency and target g ain, target cost and target chamber survivability to make an exploratory pr ogramme in IFE attractive.