What is Inertial Confinement Fusion?
Inertial confinement fusion (ICF) is a method of achieving nuclear fusion by quickly compressing and heating a material. Inertial confinement fusion is usually done with high-powered lasers, which are all focused onto a small pellet to rapidly heat it up. The intense heating vaporizes the material inside the pellet, creating a shock wave which is hot and dense enough to cause the material to fuse. Although inertial confinement fusion has yet to produce more useful energy than it consumes, research on how to build a commercially viable power source is still in progress. The basic ingredients of an inertial confinement fusion pellet are deuterium and tritium, both hydrogen isotopes. The fusion reaction between deuterium and tritium is much easier to achieve than any other reaction, and so a power-producing deuterium/tritium reactor is the primary goal of modern fusion research. These pellets are very small, weighing much less than a gram, and are inserted one at a time into the inertial
-In an inertial confinement fusion reaction, energy is rapidly applied to the surface of the fusion capsule which causes the solid surface to vaporize or turn into a gas. -Upon vaporization this material swiftly moves away from the remaining capsule material in a rocket-like manner. -This projection of gas away from the surface creates shock waves that move through the capsule, compressing and heating the interior hydrogen isotopes. -Using this technique it is possible to create conditions, similar to that in a star, which are necessary for fusion to occur. -As the materials fuse they give off energy, that causes the other hydrogen nuclei to heat up and begin to expand. -This expansion is limited by the tendency of the shock waves to continue compressing the material from the outside, otherwise known as inertia. -The net result is an inertially confined fusion reaction. (http://neutrino.nuc.berkeley.
