August 8, 2024
The handling of tritium is an important issue for any deuterium-tritium (DT) based fusion approach. While other advanced fuels may have some advantages, DT is the only fuel to have demonstrated a burning plasma, ignition, and gain > 1 in laser fusion experiments on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) laser. In order to take the physics results from NIF and move to the high gain (~ 100) needed for a power plant, Focused Energy, Inc is developing proton fast ignition. In proton fast ignition, two sets of laser drive the target – the first set of lasers compresses the fuel and the second set ignites the fuel. This study brings together the expertise on tritium and tritium handling from Savannah River National Laboratory with the reactor chamber and target physics expertise from Focused Energy, Inc. to assess the tritium handling system needed for proton fast ignition.