The feasibility of inertial-confinement fusion

So concluded the chairman of a Department of Energy ad hoc committee of experts in 1979, after a comprehensive review of the US inertial-confinement fusion program. In spite of this positive evaluation, the role of inertial-confinement fusion in the total US energy program continues to be a subject of disagreement. Before I mention the issues of contention, let me describe inertial-confinement fusion briefly. In a typical scheme, a pea-sized target pellet containing hydrogen isotopes is projected into a reactor chamber, where it is suddenly irradiated with an intense beam of light or ions from a “driver” (see figure 1). As the surface of the target blasts away, the rocket-like reaction forces implode the target's interior to densities and temperatures sufficient to cause the hydrogen nuclei to fuse, releasing an amount of energy equivalent to that of a barrel of oil (see PHYSICS TODAY, August 1973, page 46).