_version_ 1866909579954094080
author Alexander, Andrew
Benedetti, Laura Robin
Bhattacharyya, Indrani
Bowen, Jared
Cabatu, June
Cacdac, Virgil
Chhavi, Chhavi
Chen, Chiatai
Chen, Karen
Clark, Dan
Clark, Jerry
Cope, Tyler
Dannemann, Will
Davidson, Scott
DeHaan, David
Dugan, John
Eihusen, Mindy
Ellison, C. Leland
Esquivel, Carlos
Ethridge, David
Ferguson, Blake
Ferguson, Bryan
Fry, Jon
Garcia-Rubio, Fernando
Goyal, Tarun
Grim, Gary
Grodman, Justin
Haid, Ben
Howland, Fred
Huynh, Van
John, Vishal
Knapp, Patrick
Kravitz, Isaac
Lander, Eric S.
Langendorf, Samuel
LeChien, Keith
Link, Anthony
Meezan, Nathan
Miller, Douglas S.
Nardelli, Nantas
Ogirri, Queenelle
Peng, Jon He
Pinto, Alexander
Powser, Rudolph
Puno, Fritz Roy
Quang, Kenny
Rahn, Brett
Regan, Will
Reichenbach, Kelsey
Reyes, Adam
Richardson, Courtney
Rose, David
Samaniego, Joseph
Schmit, Paul F.
Silva, Victor
Simon, Nick
Sitaraman, Shiva
Sullan, Hardeep
Trebesch, James
Truong, Minh
Von Muench, Carrie
Waltz, Cory
Williams, Doug
Wood, Echo
Wu, Sid
Zylstra, Alex B.
author_facet Alexander, Andrew
Benedetti, Laura Robin
Bhattacharyya, Indrani
Bowen, Jared
Cabatu, June
Cacdac, Virgil
Chhavi, Chhavi
Chen, Chiatai
Chen, Karen
Clark, Dan
Clark, Jerry
Cope, Tyler
Dannemann, Will
Davidson, Scott
DeHaan, David
Dugan, John
Eihusen, Mindy
Ellison, C. Leland
Esquivel, Carlos
Ethridge, David
Ferguson, Blake
Ferguson, Bryan
Fry, Jon
Garcia-Rubio, Fernando
Goyal, Tarun
Grim, Gary
Grodman, Justin
Haid, Ben
Howland, Fred
Huynh, Van
John, Vishal
Knapp, Patrick
Kravitz, Isaac
Lander, Eric S.
Langendorf, Samuel
LeChien, Keith
Link, Anthony
Meezan, Nathan
Miller, Douglas S.
Nardelli, Nantas
Ogirri, Queenelle
Peng, Jon He
Pinto, Alexander
Powser, Rudolph
Puno, Fritz Roy
Quang, Kenny
Rahn, Brett
Regan, Will
Reichenbach, Kelsey
Reyes, Adam
Richardson, Courtney
Rose, David
Samaniego, Joseph
Schmit, Paul F.
Silva, Victor
Simon, Nick
Sitaraman, Shiva
Sullan, Hardeep
Trebesch, James
Truong, Minh
Von Muench, Carrie
Waltz, Cory
Williams, Doug
Wood, Echo
Wu, Sid
Zylstra, Alex B.
contents High-yield inertial fusion offers a transformative path to affordable clean firm power and advanced defense capabilities. Recent milestones at large facilities, particularly the National Ignition Facility (NIF), have demonstrated the feasibility of ignition but highlight the need for approaches that can deliver large amounts of energy to fusion targets at much higher efficiency and lower cost. We propose that pulser-driven inertial fusion energy (IFE), which uses high-current pulsed-power technology to compress targets to thermonuclear conditions, can achieve this goal. In this paper, we detail the physics basis for pulser IFE, focusing on magnetized liner inertial fusion (MagLIF), where cylindrical metal liners compress DT fuel under strong magnetic fields and pre-heat. We discuss how the low implosion velocities, direct-drive efficiency, and scalable pulser architecture can achieve ignition-level conditions at low capital cost. Our multi-dimensional simulations, benchmarked against experiments at the Z facility, show that scaling from 20 MA to 50-60 MA of current enables net facility gain. We then introduce our Demonstration System (DS), a pulsed-power driver designed to deliver more than 60 MA and store approximately 80 MJ of energy. The DS is designed to achieve a 1000x increase in effective performance compared to the NIF, delivering approximately 100x greater facility-level energy gain -- and importantly, achieving net facility gain, or Qf>1 -- at just 1/10 the capital cost. We also examine the engineering requirements for repetitive operation, target fabrication, and chamber maintenance, highlighting a practical roadmap to commercial power plants.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_10680
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Affordable, manageable, practical, and scalable (AMPS) high-yield and high-gain inertial fusion
Alexander, Andrew
Benedetti, Laura Robin
Bhattacharyya, Indrani
Bowen, Jared
Cabatu, June
Cacdac, Virgil
Chhavi, Chhavi
Chen, Chiatai
Chen, Karen
Clark, Dan
Clark, Jerry
Cope, Tyler
Dannemann, Will
Davidson, Scott
DeHaan, David
Dugan, John
Eihusen, Mindy
Ellison, C. Leland
Esquivel, Carlos
Ethridge, David
Ferguson, Blake
Ferguson, Bryan
Fry, Jon
Garcia-Rubio, Fernando
Goyal, Tarun
Grim, Gary
Grodman, Justin
Haid, Ben
Howland, Fred
Huynh, Van
John, Vishal
Knapp, Patrick
Kravitz, Isaac
Lander, Eric S.
Langendorf, Samuel
LeChien, Keith
Link, Anthony
Meezan, Nathan
Miller, Douglas S.
Nardelli, Nantas
Ogirri, Queenelle
Peng, Jon He
Pinto, Alexander
Powser, Rudolph
Puno, Fritz Roy
Quang, Kenny
Rahn, Brett
Regan, Will
Reichenbach, Kelsey
Reyes, Adam
Richardson, Courtney
Rose, David
Samaniego, Joseph
Schmit, Paul F.
Silva, Victor
Simon, Nick
Sitaraman, Shiva
Sullan, Hardeep
Trebesch, James
Truong, Minh
Von Muench, Carrie
Waltz, Cory
Williams, Doug
Wood, Echo
Wu, Sid
Zylstra, Alex B.
Plasma Physics
High-yield inertial fusion offers a transformative path to affordable clean firm power and advanced defense capabilities. Recent milestones at large facilities, particularly the National Ignition Facility (NIF), have demonstrated the feasibility of ignition but highlight the need for approaches that can deliver large amounts of energy to fusion targets at much higher efficiency and lower cost. We propose that pulser-driven inertial fusion energy (IFE), which uses high-current pulsed-power technology to compress targets to thermonuclear conditions, can achieve this goal. In this paper, we detail the physics basis for pulser IFE, focusing on magnetized liner inertial fusion (MagLIF), where cylindrical metal liners compress DT fuel under strong magnetic fields and pre-heat. We discuss how the low implosion velocities, direct-drive efficiency, and scalable pulser architecture can achieve ignition-level conditions at low capital cost. Our multi-dimensional simulations, benchmarked against experiments at the Z facility, show that scaling from 20 MA to 50-60 MA of current enables net facility gain. We then introduce our Demonstration System (DS), a pulsed-power driver designed to deliver more than 60 MA and store approximately 80 MJ of energy. The DS is designed to achieve a 1000x increase in effective performance compared to the NIF, delivering approximately 100x greater facility-level energy gain -- and importantly, achieving net facility gain, or Qf>1 -- at just 1/10 the capital cost. We also examine the engineering requirements for repetitive operation, target fabrication, and chamber maintenance, highlighting a practical roadmap to commercial power plants.
title Affordable, manageable, practical, and scalable (AMPS) high-yield and high-gain inertial fusion
topic Plasma Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.10680