Inertial Fusion Driven by Intense Heavy-ion Beams

Intense heavy-ion beams have long been considered a promising driver option for inertial-fusion energy production. This paper briefly compares inertial confinement fusion (ICF) to the more-familiar magneticconfinement approach and presents some advantages of using beams of heavy ions to drive ICF instead of lasers. Key design choices in heavy-ion fusion (HIF) facilities are discussed, particularly the type of accelerator. We then review experiments carried out at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) over the past thirty years to understand various aspects of HIF driver physics. A brief review follows of present HIF research in the US and abroad, focusing on a new facility, NDCX-II, being built at LBNL to study the physics of warm dense matter heated by ions, as well as aspects of HIF target physics. Future research directions are briefly summarized.