Dean Stephen O
Fusion Power Associates.
Philos Trans A Math Phys Eng Sci. 2020 Nov 13;378(2184):20200007. doi: 10.1098/rsta.2020.0007. Epub 2020 Oct 12.
Fusion holds the promise of providing growing world energy demand with a carbon-free power source having a universally available fuel source and attractive safety and environmental characteristics. A significant global effort has been underway for over 50 years aimed at the achievement of fusion by inertial confinement. The effort to date has necessarily emphasized understanding the physics of compressing and heating a small amount of fusion fuel to the high densities and temperatures required for ignition and energy gain. Though steady progress has been and is still being made to achieve the required physics understanding and energy gain, those goals have not yet quite been met. It is timely to put progress toward fusion power by inertial confinement into perspective by developing an updated roadmap. Preparing a roadmap from present achievements to the ultimate goal of commercial fusion power requires formally identifying and implementing complementary efforts on a number of fronts. These include the choice, development and demonstration of high repetition rate compression drivers (e.g. lasers) to succeed present day single-pulse sources; design, fabrication and testing of high gain targets (gain of order 100); development of mass production, cost-effective, target fabrication and delivery systems capable of inserting targets into the reaction chamber several times per second, and demonstrating ability to accurately hit and efficiently compress those targets to reliably produce the required fusion yields; design and demonstration of reaction chambers capable of handling energy yields and target debris clearing at the levels required for achieving high power plant reliability with low induced radioactivity. A robust ongoing effort on competitive power plant conceptual design is necessary to guide the implementation of a roadmap, including the timing and level of effort on the 'beyond ignition' demonstrations. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Prospects for high gain inertial fusion energy (part 1)'.
核聚变有望为不断增长的全球能源需求提供一种无碳能源，其燃料来源广泛，且具有吸引人的安全和环境特性。五十多年来，全球一直在进行重大努力，旨在通过惯性约束实现核聚变。迄今为止，这项工作必然强调了解将少量核聚变燃料压缩并加热到点火和能量增益所需的高密度和高温的物理过程。尽管在实现所需的物理理解和能量增益方面已经并仍在取得稳步进展，但这些目标尚未完全实现。通过制定一份更新的路线图，适时地对惯性约束核聚变发电的进展进行审视是很有必要的。从目前的成果到商业核聚变发电的最终目标制定路线图，需要在多个方面正式确定并实施互补性的努力。这些方面包括选择、开发和演示高重复率压缩驱动器（例如激光器）以取代当今的单脉冲源；设计、制造和测试高增益靶（增益约为100）；开发能够每秒向反应室插入多次靶的大规模生产、具有成本效益的靶制造和输送系统，并展示准确击中并有效压缩这些靶以可靠地产生所需核聚变产额的能力；设计和演示能够处理实现高电厂可靠性所需水平的能量产额和清除靶碎片且放射性诱导低的反应室。持续大力开展有竞争力的电厂概念设计对于指导路线图的实施是必要的，包括“点火后”演示所需的时间和努力程度。本文是“高增益惯性聚变能源的前景（第1部分）”讨论会议文集的一部分。
