June 14, 2011 Executive Summary of the Workshop on Accelerators for Heavy Ion Fusion May 23-26, 2011 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory The National Ignition Facility has commenced its campaign of ignition experiments. These are stimulating interest in inertial fusion energy systems, including Heavy Ion Fusion (HIF). The purpose of the Workshop was to review the status of HIF research, and to identify the most promising areas of research. We had participants from many laboratories, universities and companies: BNL, FNAL, GSI (Germany), LANL, LBNL, LLNL, ORNL, PSFC/MIT, MSU, PPPL, Univ. of Maryland, Technischen Universität Darmstadt (Germany), Utsunomiya Univ., (Japan), Fusion Power Corp., Vallecitos Molten Salt Research, and Voss Scientific. A total of 68 participants, many from labs outside of the traditional HIF research collaborations, helped us grow the community. Plenary sessions were held on Monday May 23, and Thursday May 26. There were five working groups, which convened on May 24 and 25: IFE targets, RF approach to HIF, induction accelerator approach to HIF, chamber and driver interface, ion sources and injectors. The workshop was supported in part by the Heavy Ion Fusion Sciences Virtual National Laboratory, the DOE OFES, and DOE HEP. International participants in the workshop expressed strong support for collaboration on heavy ion fusion research. There are opportunities for and interest in experimental collaboration on beam physics and accelerator research at LBNL, UMER, GSI, LANL, BNL, FNAL, ORNL, ITEP, KEK and elsewhere. The unifying motivations and major challenges for further research into HIF have been noted by various high level reviews:
The range of HIF target design simulations has broadened:
Recent advances in accelerator science were discussed along with the potential impact on HIF. The three main types of heavy ion drivers are synchrotrons, RF and induction linacs with multiple beams. Noteworthy advances include:
The chamber and chamber-driver interface is uniquely challenging for accelerator design:
The participants see opportunities for collaboration, and expressed interest in a follow-up workshop to address key issues in greater detail. Each working group has summarized its findings in reports. Peter Seidl (LBNL) Organizing Committee (chair) John Barnard (LLNL) IFE Targets working group chairman, Organizing Committee Robert Garnett (LANL) RF accelerators working group chairman Igor Kaganovich (PPPL) Chamber and Driver working group chairman Joe Kwan (LBNL) Ion sources and injector working group co-chair Grant Logan (LBNL) Director, Heavy Ion Fusion Sciences Virtual National Laboratory Ralph Moir (Vallecitos Molten Salt Research) Chamber and Driver working group chairman Subrata Nath (LANL) Induction Accelerators working group chairman John Perkins (LLNL) IFE Targets working group chairman Martin Stockli (ORNL) Ion sources and injector working group chairman |