Continuous inertial confinement fusion for the generation of very intense plasma jets

摘要

The attainment of high densities in inertial confinement fusion is reached through the coalescence of convergent waves in time. According to the laws of gas dynamics there exists a corresponding solution where the coalescence takes place instead in space. Applied to inertial confinement fusion, this solution may provide a configuration for a continuous plasma focus. If such a configuration can be upgraded to yield a net release of thermonuclear energy, the generation of very intense plasma jets may become possible.