Evidence for Stratification of Deuterium-Tritium Fuel in Inertial Confinement Fusion Implosions

• Main Authors: Casey, Daniel Thomas (Contributor), Frenje, Johan A. (Contributor), Gatu Johnson, Maria (Contributor), Manuel, Mario J.-E (Contributor), Rinderknecht, Hans George (Contributor), Sinenian, Nareg (Contributor), Seguin, Fredrick Hampton (Contributor), Petrasso, Richard D. (Contributor), Radha, P. B. (Author), Delettrez, J. A. (Author), Yu Glebov, V. (Author), Sangster, T. C. (Author), McNabb, D. P. (Author), Amendt, P. A. (Author), Boyd, R. N. (Author), Rygg, J. R. (Author), Kim, Y. H. (Author), Bacher, A. D. (Author), Li, C. K. (Contributor), Meyerhofer, D. D. (Author), Herrmann, H. W (Author)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Plasma Science and Fusion Center (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. School of Science (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Physical Society, 2012-07-10T15:00:10Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

Measurements of the D(d,p)T (dd) and T(t,2n)[superscript 4]He (tt) reaction yields have been compared with those of the D(t,n)[superscript 4]He (dt) reaction yield, using deuterium-tritium gas-filled inertial confinement fusion capsule implosions. In these experiments, carried out on the OMEGA laser, absolute spectral measurements of dd protons and tt neutrons were obtained. From these measurements, it was concluded that the dd yield is anomalously low and the tt yield is anomalously high relative to the dt yield, an observation that we conjecture to be caused by a stratification of the fuel in the implosion core. This effect may be present in ignition experiments planned on the National Ignition Facility.
University of Rochester. Fusion Science Center (412761-G)
University of Rochester. Laboratory for Laser Energetics (414090-G)
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (B580243)
United States. Dept. of Energy (DE-NA0000877)
United States. Dept. of Energy (DE-FG52-09NA29553)