In preparation for ignition on the National Ignition Facility, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory s Inertial Confinement Fusion Program, working in collaboration with Los Alamos National Laboratory, Commissariat a 1 Energie Atomique (CEA), and Laboratory for Laser Energetics at the University of Rochester, has performed a broad range of experiments on the Nova and Omega lasers to test the fundamentals of the NIF target designs. These studies have refined our understanding of the important target physics, and have led to many of the specifications for the NIF laser and the cryogenic ignition targets. Our recent work has been focused in the areas of hohlraum energetics, symmetry, shock physics, and target design optimization & fabrication.

In preparation for ignition on the National Ignition Facility, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's Inertial Confinement Fusion Program, working in collaboration with Los Alamos National Laboratory, Commissariat a lEnergie Atomique (CEA), and Laboratory for Laser Energetics at the University of Rochester, has performed a broad range of experiments on the Nova and Omega lasers to test the fundamentals of the NIF target designs. These studies have refined our understanding of the important target physics, and have led to many of the specifications for the NIF laser and the cryogenic ignition targets. Our recent work has been focused in the areas of hohlraum energetics, symmetry, shock physics, and target design optimization & fabrication.

In the fall of 2010, the Office of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Secretary for Science asked for a National Research Council (NRC) committee to investigate the prospects for generating power using inertial confinement fusion (ICF) concepts, acknowledging that a key test of viability for this concept-ignition -could be demonstrated at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in the relatively near term. The committee was asked to provide an unclassified report. However, DOE indicated that to fully assess this topic, the committee's deliberations would have to be informed by the results of some classified experiments and information, particularly in the area of ICF targets and nonproliferation. Thus, the Panel on the Assessment of Inertial Confinement Fusion Targets ("the panel") was assembled, composed of experts able to access the needed information. The panel was charged with advising the Committee on the Prospects for Inertial Confinement Fusion Energy Systems on these issues, both by internal discussion and by this unclassified report. A Panel on Fusion Target Physics ("the panel") will serve as a technical resource to the Committee on Inertial Confinement Energy Systems ("the Committee") and will prepare a report that describes the R&D challenges to providing suitable targets, on the basis of parameters established and provided to the Panel by the Committee. The Panel on Fusion Target Physics will prepare a report that will assess the current performance of fusion targets associated with various ICF concepts in order to understand: 1. The spectrum output; 2. The illumination geometry; 3. The high-gain geometry; and 4. The robustness of the target design. The panel addressed the potential impacts of the use and development of current concepts for Inertial Fusion Energy on the proliferation of nuclear weapons information and technology, as appropriate. The Panel examined technology options, but does not provide recommendations specific to any currently operating or proposed ICF facility.

To define the development work needed to support inertial confinement fusion (ICF) program goals, the authors have assembled this Core Science and Technology (CS and T) Plan that encompasses nearly all science research and technology development in the ICF program. The objective of the CS and T Plan described here is to identify the development work needed to ensure the success of advanced ICF facilities, in particular the National Ignition Facility (NIF). This plan is intended as a framework to facilitate planning and coordination of future ICF programmatic activities. The CS and T Plan covers all elements of the ICF program including laser technology, optic manufacturing, target chamber, target diagnostics, target design and theory, target components and fabrication, and target physics experiments. The CS and T Plan has been divided into these seven different technology development areas, and they are used as level-1 categories in a work breakdown structure (WBS) to facilitate the organization of all activities in this plan. The scope of the CS and T Plan includes all research and development required to support the NIF leading up to the activation and initial operation as an indirect-drive facility. In each of the CS and T main development areas, the authors describe the technology and issues that need to be addressed to achieve NIF performance goals. To resolve all issues and achieve objectives, an extensive assortment of tasks must be performed in a coordinated and timely manner. The authors describe these activities and present planning schedules that detail the flow of work to be performed over a 10-year period corresponding to estimated time needed to demonstrate fusion ignition with the NIF. Besides the benefits to the ICF program, the authors also discuss how the commercial sector and the nuclear weapons science may profit from the proposed research and development program.

The Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) Program at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has made substantial progress in target physics, target diagnostics, and laser science and technology. In each area, progress required the development of experimental techniques and computational modeling. The objectives of the target physics experiments in the Nova laser facility are to address and understand critical physics issues that determine the conditions required to achieve ignition and gain in an ICF capsule. The LLNL experimental program primarily addresses indirect-drive implosions, in which the capsule is driven by x rays produced by the interaction of the laser light with a high-Z plasma. Experiments address both the physics of generating the radiation environment in a laser-driven hohlraum and the physics associated with imploding ICF capsules to ignition and high-gain conditions in the absence of alpha deposition. Recent experiments and modeling have established much of the physics necessary to validate the basic concept of ignition and ICF target gain in the laboratory. The rapid progress made in the past several years, and in particular, recent results showing higher radiation drive temperatures and implosion velocities than previously obtained and assumed for high-gain target designs, has led LLNL to propose an upgrade of the Nova laser to 1.5 to 2 MJ (at 0.35 [mu]m) to demonstrate ignition and energy gains of 10 to 20 -- the Nova Upgrade.

This book collects together theoretical and experimental contributions on laser-plasma interaction and dynamics, together with the physics of laser fusion, coronal, hydrodynamics (instabilities), radiation hydrodynamics and atomic physics. Theory and experiments are reviewed. In addition to diagnostics, indirect drive modeling and experiments are reported, as well as approaches of direct drive foam-buffered targets for uniform compression. New ideas on triggering ignition and use of advanced fuels for neutronless fusion are also reported. The short-pulse ultra-intense laser interaction is extensively represented both theoretically and experimentally. The two major laser-fusion ignition projected facilities (2 MJ class). National Ignition Facility (NIF) / USA and Laser Megajoule (LMJ) / France, are also disscused.