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Fusion Power Associates Annual Meeting “Countdown to Ignition and Gain” December 3, 2008

Search For A “YES WE CAN” Ten Year Inertial Fusion Energy Development Strategy. John H. Nuckolls LLNL Director Emeritus. Fusion Power Associates Annual Meeting “Countdown to Ignition and Gain” December 3, 2008.

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Fusion Power Associates Annual Meeting “Countdown to Ignition and Gain” December 3, 2008

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  1. Search For A “YES WE CAN” Ten Year Inertial Fusion Energy Development Strategy John H. Nuckolls LLNL Director Emeritus Fusion Power Associates Annual Meeting “Countdown to Ignition and Gain” December 3, 2008 None of these remarks are necessarily the view of LLNL, LLNS-LLC, NNSA, the USG, or any other organization.

  2. Ten Year Inertial Fusion Energy Development Strategy? Ten Years?? • Manhattan Project in 4 years • Apollo Program in 6 years Goal: In the next decade, develop Inertial Fusion Energy to address the great challenges of climate, energy, and the economy Funding: President-Elect Obama’s projected high national priority $150B, 10 year energy program

  3. Ten Year IFE Development Strategy?Exploits Four Key Technological Strengths • Smaller, cheaper lasers enabled by advances in targets • Fusion reaction chamber wall protected from radiation damage • Separate laser, target factory, and fusion reaction chamber enable rapid innovation • NIF, supercomputers, and outstanding experts will enable major improvements in target performance

  4. Ten Year IFE Development Strategy?Accelerate Ignition and Fast Ignition Why FI: • A second robust path to ignition and high gain • Requires much smaller laser energy; enables a revolution in fusion energy development and economics • Potential for major increases in target gain via increases in implosion efficiency How: Surge in funding for Rochester FI experiments, FI target design at LLNL and University of Rochester, and for a NIF FI laser capability

  5. Ten Year IFE Development Strategy?Four Steps to Fusion Power • Build an efficient high-average power laser module, a target factory module and a fusion chamber • Build a surged, heat capacity IFE system • Build a fusion engine • Breed tritium supply to initiate larger fusion systems • Waste from fission power plants • Build a fusion power plant

  6. Ten Year IFE Development Strategy?Questions/Issues • Major technological difficulties? Risks? • Costs? Less than 10% of $150B? • Strong, sustained, political support? • Need detailed plans, system studies

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