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The Miracle of Compression and Heating: How Does Inertial Confinement Fusion Start a Nuclear Reaction?
As the world's desire for clean energy increases, the spectacular processes of compression and heating have attracted the attention of scientists, especially the promising technology of inertial confinement fusion (ICF). ICF is a process that starts a nuclear reaction by compressing and heating fuel, using small fuel particles such as deuterium (2H) and tritium (3H) to produce clean energy. Not only was this technology considered a practical energy solution in the 1970s, but even in 2022, the U.S. National Ignition Facility (NIF), the largest ICF experimental facility, achieved unprecedented energy gains, all of which made us more aware of nuclear fusion. The future is full of expectations.
Basic concepts of fusion reactions
Nuclear fusion is the joining of smaller atoms to form larger atoms. When two atoms or ions are close enough, the nuclear force exceeds the electrostatic force pushing them apart. To overcome this barrier, atoms must have high kinetic energy, which is known as the Coulomb barrier or fusion barrier. The simplest fuel is composed of a mixture of deuterium and tritium, called D-T. Since the probability of fusion reactions is closely related to the density and temperature of the fuel, the technical goal of ICF is to increase the value of these variables.
The development history of thermonuclear devices
The initial development of ICF can be traced back to the hydrogen bomb in the 1950s, which uses the heat caused by nuclear fission to perform nuclear fusion reactions.
In this context, early ICF devices were initialized with high-energy lasers. These lasers would deliver energy to the outer shell, causing it to rapidly explode outwards, thereby generating internal compression and heating. These technologies were further optimized in experiments in the 1980s and 1990s, laying the foundation for the design of larger nuclear fusion experimental machines.
The working mechanism of ICF
During the sintering process, deuterium and tritium, isotopes of hydrogen, fuse at high temperatures of up to 100 million K. This efficient combination of extreme heat and compression enables the nuclear fusion reaction to be initiated and achieve an input energy of approximately 2.05 megajoules (MJ) in NIF and produce an output energy of 3.15 MJ, which is one of the characteristics of ICF technology. Big breakthrough.
Progress in heating and compression methods
In early ICF research, the idea of using hot spot ignition methods first emerged. In this process, an initial low-energy pulse is used to vaporize the fuel particles, followed by a very short and powerful pulse at the end of the compression cycle, pushing shock waves into the interior of the compressed fuel. The encounter of shock waves further increases the probability and efficiency of nuclear fusion reactions.
Challenges and Prospects
To expand the performance of ICF, scientists face multiple challenges, including increasing the energy transfer to the target, controlling the compression symmetry of the fuel, and delaying the transfer of heat.
While these challenges are exciting, the scientists' efforts mean that significant advances in fusion energy are possible in the future, such as the possibility of high-efficiency commercial applications.
Conclusion
By seeking a deeper understanding and technological innovation of compression and heating, inertial constraint fusion may become an important source of clean energy in the future. However, let us wait and see whether scientists can successfully crack all the technical bottlenecks of this energy model?
