A 3 megajoule heavy ion fusion driver

The initiation of inertial confinement fusion reactions with a heavy ion particle beam has been under intensive study since 1976, and the progress of this study is principally documented in the proceedings of annual workshops held by U.S. National Laboratories. 1, 2, 3, 4 At this time a 3MJ, 150TW, ion beam is a good choice to initiate microexplosions with energy gain of 100. The Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory has made systems studies based on a Linear Induction Accelerator to meet the beam requirements. The accelerator system, expected performance and cost, and technical problems to be addressed in the near future are discussed.