Ballistic focus light ion beams for an inertial confinement fusion reactor

The issues of ion beam transport are studied in the context of the LIBRA-LiTE reactor study. LIBRA-LiTE is a 1000 MWe power plant design consistent with ballistic ion focusing. The ion beam energy must be divided between many beams to provide proper illumination symmetry. The needs to keep the total beam energy low and the intensity at the required level lead to constraints on the transport system, particularly, a high degree of bunching and a low microdivergence. This paper will describe arguments leading to an operating point for light ion ICF with ballistic focusing. Calculations of heating of the background gas by the ion beams and the subsequent increase in the electrical conductivity of the gas will be presented. This is an important issue to the stability of the ion beam.