Einstein first correctly predicted how mass deflects light. Galaxy clusters, comprising of up to hundreds of galaxies all residing in a still larger dark...
Mar24
Abstract:
The demonstration of energy gain by nuclear fusion in the laboratory and its eventual utilization as an unlimited energy source has been a grand challenge for physicists and engineers for 70 years. The realization as an industrial energy source would have a tremendous impact on our society and would change our approach to energy policy and climate change. In this talk, I will present the path towards the demonstration of multi-megajoule energy yield from deuterium-tritium plasmas in indirectly driven inertial confinement fusion implosions on the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. These experiments exceed fusion powers of 70 PW in a single event, vastly exceeding human’s total annual power capability by a factor of 3,000. This achievement came after increasing the fusion energy yield by a factor of 2,000 since the first experiments on the National Ignition Facility about a decade ago. I will discuss some discoveries and roadblocks towards ignition and how obstacles were overcome. Currently, several avenues towards power generation by fusion ignition and high fusion yield are beginning to emerge where efforts towards laser and target technology developments have been launched recently through the U.S. DOE’s IFE-STAR and FIRE programs. I will discuss the critical role that future experiments at the Matter in Extreme Conditions instrument at SLAC’s Linac Coherent Light Source will play to advance our understanding of the physical properties of laser-driven fusion fuels that determine compressibility, instability growth, and heating to fusion power conditions.
About Dr. Siegfried Glenzer
Siegfried Glenzer is professor in the photon science faculty and the director of the high energy density science division at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. He joined SLAC as a distinguished scientist in 2013 to build a new program exploring matter in extreme conditions using high-power lasers and the Linac Coherent Light Source, SLAC's X-ray laser. He became faculty member of the photon science faculty in 2015 and, by courtesy, for Mechanical Engineering in 2021.
Glenzer did his undergraduate and graduate studies at the Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany, where he received his PhD in 1994. He then went to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as a postdoctoral fellow and, in time, became the laboratory's group leader for plasma physics. At Livermore, he led the first inertial confinement fusion experiments on the National Ignition Facility. He has been a visiting lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley and a senior Alexander-von-Humboldt research scientist at the University of Rostock and the Deutsche Elektronen Synchrotron (DESY) in Hamburg, Germany. Glenzer is a fellow of the American Physical Society and was awarded the society’s 2003 and 2022 John Dawson Award for Excellence in Plasma Physics Research. In 2014, he received the Ernest O. Lawrence Award of the U. S. Department of Energy. In 2023, he received the DOE Secretary of Energy Honor’s Award, became a Hoover Faculty Council member, and was awarded the Fulbright fellowship from the U. S. Department of State.
Audience:
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