Inertial confinement fusion: Review and perspective

Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) refers to the extraction of energy from fusion reactions ignited in small fuel pellets by the deposition of energy at extremely high power. The pellets of thermonuclear fuel, nominally deuterium and tritium, are compressed to densities on the order of one thousand times liquid density before the center reaches ignition temperature and burn propagates outward. Each pellet will produce an energy yield the equivalent of hundreds of pounds of explosive. For such a system to be a potential producer of electric power, it is necessary that an efficient source of sufficient power density and coupling properties to drive the implosion be developed. A target capable of producing high gain from this deposited power must be designed and manufactured. And a reactor which effectively contains the explosions and transfers the energy to usable form must be built. This paper surveys progress in ICF research in these areas from 1972 through 1983.