Loads and stresses in ICF reactors

The loads on inertial confinement fusion (ICF) reactor vessel walls resulting from anticipated operating conditions will be in the form of very intense but short duration mechanical and thermal pulses. In this paper these pulses are modeled and the magnitudes of the associated impulses are estimated. Stresses induced in the containment vessel walls are determined using engineering stress analysis. Simplifying assumptions required to derive analytic expressions for loads and stresses are made and the results are presented in the form convenient for parametric studies and determinations of design sensitivities to changes in different parameters. The results indicate that dominating mechanical design constraints will be determined most likely by evaporation recoil and elastic buckling and that thermally excited stress waves may determine critical design requirements. The analysis of ICF reactor vessel loads and stresses summarized here also led to identification of technical topics that require additional theoretical and experimental studies for better ICF reactor modeling and more accurate assessment of their economic potential