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Speaker: Riccardo Betti, University of Rochester, Rochester NY, USA

Title: Thermonuclear ignition and next steps in laser-driven inertial confinement fusion and inertial fusion energy

Abstract: Recent progress in both direct- and indirect-drive ICF (inertial confinement fusion) has considerably improved the prospects for achieving thermonuclear ignition and energy gains with megajoule-class lasers. Recent implosions on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) using the indirect-drive approach have achieved about 1.3 MJ of fusion yield and core conditions that can be interpreted as ignition of the DT fuel. The next step is to better understand the factors most critical to climbing the so-called “ignition cliff” to increase the fusion energy output above the laser energy input. When hydrodynamically scaled to NIF laser energies, recent direct-drive implosions on OMEGA are also expected to produce close to 1 MJ of fusion yield and about 80% of the Lawson triple product required for ignition. Those implosions have benefited from a significant increase in implosion performance obtained through a statistical approach used in designing OMEGA targets and laser pulse shapes. An overview of the current status of laser ICF and prospects for short-term advances in inertial fusion energy will be presented.

This material is based upon work supported by the Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration under Award Number DE-NA0003856, the University of Rochester, and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.

Biography: Riccardo Betti is the Robert L. McCrory professor of Mechanical Engineering and Physics and Astronomy at the University of Rochester, in Rochester, NY. Since 2004, he has also acted as the Director of the Fusion Science Center at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics. He received is Ph.D. from the Department of Nuclear Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA) in 1992. Prior to that he studied at the University of Rome (Italy), where he graduated with honors with a degree in Nuclear Engineering in 1987. Honors and awards

Dr. Betti is the Chair of the American Physical Society's Division of Plasma Physics (November, 2014-October 2015). Dr. Betti was a 2012 recipient of the U.S. Department of Energy's Ernest O. Lawrence Award for "a series of impactful theoretical discoveries in the physics of inertial confinement fusion including seminal transformative work on thermonuclear ignition, hydrodynamic instabilities and implosion dynamics, and the development of innovative approaches to ignition and energy gains." In 2010, he was given a Leadership Award from Fusion Power Associates "for the leadership he has been providing to the U.S. and world inertial fusion efforts, including his contributions to the search for efficient methods of igniting fusion targets, contributions to the emerging field of high energy density physics, and his advisory role in the DOE's Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee." In 2009, Dr. Betti was awarded the Edward Teller Medal from the American Nuclear Society "for seminal contributions to the theory and understanding of hydrodynamic instabilities, implosion dynamics and thermonuclear ignition in inertial confinement fusion." He has been a Fellow at the American Physical Society since 2001. In 2010, he was appointed to the Board of Physics and Astronomy of the National Academy of Sciences. He was Vice Chair of the Fusion Energy Science Committee of the Department of Energy. On October 29, 2009, Dr Betti gave a statement to the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Science and Technology Subcommittee on Energy and Environment on the "Next Generation of Fusion Energy Research."