Principles of inertial confinement fusion - physics of implosion and the concept of inertial fusion energy

Abstract

The principles of laser fusion are the implosion of fuel pellets and the inertial confinement of fusion plasma produced by implosion. The process contains a lot of interesting physics, some of which is related to other newly developing fields such as astrophysics, hydrodynamics with radiation and turbulence, nonequilibrium atomic physics, and material science of extreme conditions. This, therefore, opens up new research fields and methods in basic science. On the other hand, fusion research aims at energy development for the future. The state of the art of inertial confinement fusion has reached a level where a goal-oriented program could be arranged for physics investigations and also technological developments.