Potentiality of tritium-poor fuels for ICF fast ignitors

The burn performance of tritium-poor deuterium fuels, in conditions relevant to ICF fast ignitors, have been studied by two-dimensional numerical simulations. Compressed spheres of deuterium with an eccentric DT seed, ignited by an ultrapowerful external beam, have been considered. The dependence of the fuel energy gain on the fuel mass and energy, and on the tritium fractional content FT has been studied. Limiting gain curves (maximum gain achieved for a given fuel energy) have been found for fixed values of FT and of the isentrope parameter α, and have been compared with those for equimolar DT fuels with various compressed configurations. A region in parameter space has been found where net tritium breeding is obtained.