Technologies for Advanced Induction Accelerators

To harness fusion energy is one of today's greatest technological challenges, and one well worth pursuing. Success in the development of fusion power would result in a virtually inexhaustible source of energy. The fusion reaction, the process that powers the sun and the stars, can be duplicated on Earth. However, to date these fusion processes have been the products of large-scale experimental efforts. They have yet to achieve fusion in a manner that is cost effective and efficient enough to be applied in a commercial reactor. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has been centrally involved in the Nation's inertial confinement fusion (ICF) program for over 25 years. Much of the focus of the LLNL ICF Program has been the well-known effort to develop high power, short wavelength laser drivers to create the conditions necessary for the fusion process. But the ICF Program has also been investigating, in collaboration with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), the potential of heavy-ion accelerators as possible drivers. The objectives of the Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project described in this report have been to develop some of the enabling technologies necessary for this type of heavy-ion fusion (HIF) driver. In particular, to apply adaptivemore » control to the problem of tailored acceleration and steering of a pulsed ion beam.« less