Nova upgrade mission and design

The expeditious demonstration of ignition and gain in a laboratory Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) target has been identified by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the fusion Policy Advisory Committee (FPAC) as 'the highest priority of the ICF Program.' Assuming that the near-term NAS-recommended preparatory milestones are met, they also concluded that the proposed Nova Upgrade would be the most expeditious way of achieving that goal. The Nova Upgrade would consist of an advanced, cost effective Nd:glass laser that would deliver 1-2 MJ of 0.35μm light to a target chamber for indirect drive target experiments in which as much as 20 MJ of thermonuclear yield could result. After achieving ignition and gain, further experiments on the facility will allow development of optimized targets for Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) reactors, simulation of some aspects of ion beam targets, and development of reactor first wall concepts. The targets developed on Nova Upgrade will potentially by suitable for use in an early, low-power engineering test facility (ETF) as the next step in IFE development