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Design of an ICF plant using a nuclear-driven solid-state laser

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2009

L.-T.S. Lin ,
M.A. Prelas ,
Z. He ,
J.T. Bahns ,
W.C. Stwalley ,
G.H. Miley ,
M. Petra ,
E.G. Batyrbekov  and
Y.R. Shaban
L.-T.S. Lin
Affiliation:
University of Missouri-Columbia
M.A. Prelas
Affiliation:
University of Missouri-Columbia
Z. He
Affiliation:
University of Missouri-Columbia
J.T. Bahns
Affiliation:
University of Connecticut
W.C. Stwalley
Affiliation:
University of Connecticut
G.H. Miley
Affiliation:
University of Illinois at Urbana, Champaign
M. Petra
Affiliation:
University of Illinois at Urbana, Champaign
E.G. Batyrbekov
Affiliation:
Nuclear Physics Institute, Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan
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Abstract

An ICF plant is designed to use nuclear-driven flashlamp-pumped solid-state lasers as fusion drivers. It is proposed to use a separated fission reactor with aerosol fuel to drive alkali metal excimer flashlamps as the pumping source for solid-state lasers. The first observation of nuclear-excited sodium excimer emission at 436 nm in a TRIGA reactor with 815 Torr of He-3 and 60 Torr of sodium vapor (at T = 924 K) is reported. The experiment demonstrates the feasibility of a nuclear-driven alkali metal excimer lamp. The compatibility of alkali metal excimers with different laser crystals is evaluated for driver efficiency. High overall laser efficiency ensures large fractional output power extraction from nuclear fusion by this plant. The suitability of laser crystals for the ICF plant is also presented.

Type
Research Article
Information
Laser and Particle Beams , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , March 1995 , pp. 95 - 109
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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