Way to ICF reactor

A brief review is given of the objectives and conditions required to realiz e inertial fusion energy (IFE) power plants. Using a general system design code, an analysis of design windows for obtaining economically attractive I FE power plants is carried out. There are many options for IFE concepts - t arget irradiation, target heating, drivers and reaction chamber. In these c ombinations, the concepts that use laser for direct drive are considered th e most promising approach because of the potential for achieving high gain targets and the recent progress of diode pumped solid state lasers. We anal yzed the IFE development programs using network analysis methods. The resul ts of the analysis show that the independence and modular characteristic of the IFE key system, such as laser and reaction chamber, could make IFE pro jects rather small in size and easy to promote with a step by step program. Therefore, the way to the ICF reactor is very flexible in decreasing the r isks and selecting the optimum choice from a wide variety of options. (C) 2 000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.