Abstract

The two main types of laser drivers that have been employed to investigate inertial confinement fusion (ICF) are flashlamp-pumped Ndrglass lasers and KrF excimer systems. While Ndrglass has proved highly effective at elucidating key plasma physics issues involved in the ICF process,¹ their basic system architecture lacks the efficiency and repetition rate required to serve as an economical driver for inertial fusion energy (IFE) power plants. In addition, significant developments are needed to show that electron beam-pumped KrF systems can attain the target irradiation parameters, as well as the system efficiency, reliability, and cost goals. The result of our recent conceptual studies have revealed that a diode-pumped solid state laser (DPSSL) might be a viable driver for an IFE power plant. In this work, we report on the results from our 4000 line computer code that encompasses the crucial physics and systems details needed to evaluate the resultant cost of electricity (COE). In this effort, we have not specifically addressed issues associated with the balance-of-plant, reactor vessel, and fusion gain curves, but instead employed community-accepted paradigms that account for the critical features of these aspects of the problem. In this way, we focused our attention of the design of the DPSSL, although it was considered in the context of the entire power plant economics and energy flow.

© 1994 Optical Society of America