Progress toward ignition and burn propagation in inertial confinement fusion

To achieve efficient inertial confinement fusion one must produce a small hot spot within the imploding target from which thermonuclear burn can ignite. For the past decades, scientists throughout the world have pursued the dream of controlled thermonuclear fusion. The attraction of this goal is the enormous energy that is potentially available in fusion fuels and the view of fusion as a safe, clean energy source. The fusion reaction with the highest cross section uses the deuterium and tritium isotopes of hydrogen, and D-T would be the fuel of choice for the first generation of fusion reactors. 24 refs., 8 figs