Diffusion filling with fuel gas of high-gain direct-drive cryogenic targets

Abstract

To provide continuous operation of a reactor based on inertial confinement fusion (ICF), the thermonuclear burn region should be refilled with fuel with a frequency of 1 million targets per day. The first stage in the target production is diffusion filling of polymeric (CH) shells with fuel gas which is deuterium (D₂) or deuterium–tritium (DT) mixture. The results of simulation of filling reactor-scale CH-shells (Ø ~ 4 mm) to a pressure of ~1100 atm at 300 K in the mode with a constant pressure gradient are presented. Simple and two-layer shells of compact and porous polymers are considered. The problems of constructing an optimum DT-filling scheme avoiding CH-shell fracture due to tritium beta decay are discussed.