The application of pulsed power to inertial confinement fusion

The inertial confinement approach to fusion has the advantage over magnetic containment in that the technique has been verified on a large scale with thermonuclear weapons. The challenge is to make it happen on the laboratory scale with the nuclear driver replaced by a more conventional source of pulsed power. In order to compress a sufficient mass of D-T fuel to 1000× liquid density and heat it to the 10⁸ degrees required for ignition, power has to be supplied to a few mm dia. fuel pellet at a rate of up to 10¹⁵ W for a duration of 10 ns or so (i.e. a pulse energy of up to 10 MJ). This power can be delivered to the pellet either by photons (laser fusion) or by ions (ion-beam fusion). Both approaches involve the application of pulsed power in very large proportions