Suppression of ignition by instabilities in small fusion targets

This study presents a mechanism whereby the developing instabilities at the pusher/fuel interface strongly affects the progress of the fuel toward fusion ignition long before either shell break up or s igni ficant pusher penetration into the fusion fuel can occur. The mechanism is that of radiative energy loss into the increasing surface area of an unstable perturbed surface. Quantitative assessment of this mechanism is provided by modeling it in a 12 parameter burn code. It is contrasted with two other mechanisms and shown to be a serious consideration for DT ignition in the high gain mode.