Progress in heavy ion driven inertial fusion energy: from scaled experiments to the integrated research experiment

The promise of inertial fusion energy driven by heavy ion beams requires the development of accelerators that produce ion currents (/spl sim/100's Amperes/beam) and ion energies (/spl sim/1 - 10 GeV) that have not been achieved simultaneously in any existing accelerator. The high currents imply high generalized perveances, large tune depressions, and high space charge potentials of the beam center relative to the beam pipe. Many of the scientific issues associated with ion beams of high perveance and large tune depression have been addressed over the last two decades on scaled experiments at Lawrence Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, the University of Maryland, and elsewhere. The additional requirement of high space charge potential (or equivalently high line charge density) gives rise to effects (particularly the role of electrons in beam transport) which must be understood before proceeding to a large scale accelerator. The first phase of a new series of experiments in the Heavy Ion Fusion Virtual National Laboratory (HIF VNL), the High Current Experiments (HCX), is now beginning at LBNL. The mission of the HCX is to transport beams with driver line charge density so as to investigate the physics of this regime, including constraints on the maximum radial filling factor of the beam through the pipe. This factor is important for determining both cost and reliability of a driver scale accelerator. The HCX will provide data for design of the next steps in the sequence of experiments leading to an inertial fusion energy power plant. The focus of the program after the HCX will be on integration of all of the manipulations required for a driver. In the near term following HCX, an Integrated Beam Experiment (IBX) of the same general scale as the HCX is envisioned. The step which bridges the gap between the IBX and an engineering test facility for fusion has been designated the Integrated Research Experiment (IRE). The IRE (like the IBX) will provide an integrated test of the beam physics necessary for a driver, but in addition will provide target and chamber data. This paper will review the experimental and theoretical progress in heavy ion accelerator driver research from the scaled experiments through the present experiments and will discuss plans for the IRE.