https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2007-00196-3
Review of Japanese fusion program and role of inertial fusion
National Institute for Fusion Science, Oroshi-cho, Toki, Gifu, 509-5292, Japan
Corresponding author: a mima@ile.osaka-u.ac.jp
Received:
16
February
2006
Published online:
20
June
2007
The high compression of 600 times liquid density and the recent fast heating of a compressed core to 1-keV temperature have provided proof-of-principle of the fast ignition concept, and these results have significantly contributed to approve first phase of the Fast Ignition Realization EXperiment (FIREX) project. The goal of FIREX-I is to demonstrate fast heating of a fusion fuel up to the ignition temperature of 5–10 keV. Although the fuel size of FIREX-I is too small to ignite, sufficient heating will provide the scientific viability of ignition-and-burn by increasing the laser energy thereby the fuel size. Based on the result of FIREX-I, the decision of the start of FIREX-II to achieve ignition-and-burn can be made. The FIREX program is under the collaboration of the Institute of Laser Engineering and the National Institute for Fusion Science.
PACS: 52.50.Qt – Plasma heating by radio-frequency fields; ICR, ICP, helicons / 52.55.Hc – Stellarators, torsatrons, heliacs, bumpy tori, and other toroidal confinement devices / 52.57.-z – Laser inertial confinement / 52.57.Kk – Fast ignition of compressed fusion fuels
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 2007
