Affordable, manageable, practical, and scalable (AMPS) high-yield and high-gain inertial fusion

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, where cylindrical metal liners compress DT fuel under strong magnetic fields and preheat. 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 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 1000× increase in effective performance compared to the NIF, delivering approximately 100× 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.

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Publication Details

Journal
Physics of Plasmas
Published
2025-09-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0273277
Citations
9
Primary Topic
Laser-Plasma Interactions and Diagnostics
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
16.83
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Affordable, manageable, practical, and scalable (AMPS) high-yield and high-gain inertial fusion

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Physics of Plasmas
Laser-Plasma Interactions and Diagnostics
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Affordable, manageable, practical, and scalable (AMPS) high-yield and high-gain inertial fusion

Alexander R. Pinto, Cory Waltz, Adam Reyes, B. Ferguson, Nantas Nardelli, J. Fry, Samuel Langendorf, B. J. Haid, Kelsey Reichenbach, Eric S. Lander, Vishal John, Joseph Samaniego, T. Cope, N. B. Meezan, Jerry D. Clark, Huynh Van Minh, Paul Schmit, A. Link, G. P. Grim, Victor Silva, F. García-Rubio, D. V. Rose, Jianchao Peng, A. B. Zylstra, L. R. Benedetti, J.R. Bowen, David O. DeHaan, C. Leland Ellison, C. Richardson, Indrani Bhattacharyya, Fred Howland, Bruce Rahn, Keith LeChien, Chhavi Chhavi, Douglas S. Miller, Khaï Le Quang, William Regan, Carlos Esquivel, Echo Wood, Patrick Knapp, Chiatai Chen, Karen Chen, Tarun Goyal, Nick Simon, Sheng Wu, A. B. Alexander, Dan Clark, Susan A. Davidson, Doug Williams, Shiva Sitaraman, J. V. Dugan, B.G. Ferguson, M. Truong, Hardeep Sullan, Will Dannemann, Mindy Eihusen, David Ethridge, Justin Grodman, Isaac Kravitz, Queenelle Ogirri, Rudolph Powser, Fritz Roy Puno, June Cabatu, James Trebesch, Virgil Cacdac, Carrie Von Muench
article en
9 citations

Abstract

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, where cylindrical metal liners compress DT fuel under strong magnetic fields and preheat. 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 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 1000× increase in effective performance compared to the NIF, delivering approximately 100× 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.

Physics of PlasmasVol. 32(9)
Pacific Environment (US)
Openalex Percentile: Top 1%
Laser-Plasma Interactions and Diagnostics
16.83
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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