A new drive for ICF: Externally guided implosions

A new drive method to implode and ignite fuel micropellets is propose. It is based on the acceleration of two pellets inside a tube. The pellets are originally placed on the tube mouths and collide in the center of the tube at the end of the acceleration process. In order to increase the fuel areal density during the implosion, the tube cross section decreases from the mouths inward. There is a small cavity in the center of the tube where the collision takes place. The cavity radius expands as the inner pressure goes up, but the short inertial confinement provided by the tube material can be strong enough to trigger a fusion burst. Numerical simulations on this concept are presented in this paper. copyright 1996 American Institute of Physics