Ignition and Alpha Heating

by Laura Berzak Hopkins

6/26/2019

Abstract:

Producing a burning plasma in the laboratory has been a long-standing milestone for the plasma physics community. A burning plasma is a state where alpha particle deposition from deuterium–tritium (DT) fusion reactions is the leading source of energy input to the DT plasma. Achieving these high thermonuclear yields in an inertial confinement fusion (ICF) implosion requires an efficient transfer of energy from the driving source, e.g., lasers, to the DT fuel.  Maintaining a spherically symmetric, stable, and efficient drive is a critical challenge and focus of ICF research effort.  Utilizing an array of targets and diagnostics, we have steadily resolved challenges including improving control of time-dependent implosion symmetry and reducing target engineering feature-generated perturbations.  As a result of these efforts, we have made exciting progress toward the burning plasma regime.

Bio:

Laura Berzak Hopkins is a design physicist with WCI/DP Division and the National Ignition Facility (NIF).  She has been the lead designer for the High-Density Carbon Campaign, which reached the NNSA alpha-heating milestone with new NIF neutron yield and stagnation pressure levels.  She was also the Principal Investigator for the Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project, “Development and Qualification of a Single-shock NIF Platform for Activation Studies with a Prompt Source of Fast Neutrons”.  She earned a BA in Chemistry and Physics from Dartmouth College.  For her graduate work at Princeton University, she worked on the Lithium Tokamak experiment (LTX) at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, where she developed and fielded the system of magnetic diagnostics and was the chief tokamak operator.  Before coming to LLNL, Laura served as a Congressional Fellow scientific advisor in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.