Design of a light-ion-beam driver for the Laboratory Microfusion Facility

The U.S. Department of Energy has initiated planning for a Laboratory Microfusion Facility (LMF) as part of the national Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) program. This next major ICF facility is expected to produce a 1000-megajoule thermonuclear yield with greater than 10-megajoules of input energy to the target. As part of this initiative, we have defined a light-ion-beam LMF concept and are pursuing research on critical design issues. Details of this light-ion-beam LMF driver concept are presented together with initial results from an LMF research program aimed at a technology validation experiment on Hermes III.