BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
PRODID:UW-Madison-Physics-Events
BEGIN:VEVENT
SEQUENCE:0
UID:UW-Physics-Event-3194
DTSTART:20140314T203000Z
DURATION:PT1H0M0S
DTSTAMP:20260419T193831Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20140304T172247Z
LOCATION:2241 Chamberlin Hall (coffee at 4:30 pm)
SUMMARY:Status and prospects for achieving thermonuclear ignition on t
 he National Ignition Facility\, Physics Department Colloquium\, Riccar
 do Betti\, Rochester
DESCRIPTION:Recent experiments on the National Ignition Facility (NIF)
  have achieved the conditions where the thermonuclear fuel is self-hea
 ted by the alpha particles produced by the fusion process. For the fir
 st time in fusion research\, the self-heating process causes a signifi
 cant increase of the plasma temperature ( ~ 20 - 25 % ) and a large en
 hancement of the fusion yield\, more than doubling the number of fusio
 n reactions. Demonstrating ignition will require much higher fusion yi
 elds and dominant self-heating by the alphas.  Current NIF experiments
  use the indirect drive approach where a cryogenic spherical shell fil
 led with deuterium and tritium is imploded using an x-ray drive.  Whil
 e these results represent an important step forward in fusion research
 \, the path to thermonuclear ignition is uncertain.  Other concepts li
 ke direct drive and shock ignition provide additional options to achie
 ve ignition on the NIF. While all the currently available ignition opt
 ions are affected by major physics uncertainties\, steady progress is 
 being made on both the NIF and OMEGA laser facilities thus improving t
 he prospects for the achievement of ignition on NIF.   
URL:https://www.physics.wisc.edu/events/?id=3194
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR