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We present a simple model to scope out parameter space for indirect-drive, inertial confinement fusion designs for the National Ignition Facility laser. Because the parameter space is large, simple models can be used to identify regions of parameter space for further study with more sophisticated models and experiments. We include a model for Hohlraum radiation drive and symmetry—both based on empirical scalings from the data. The model for radiation drive is based on assuming that the high atomic number (Z) Hohlraum wall dominates the energy balance during the high power, peak of the pulse (≳ 300 TW). We find that the time-dependent radiation drive flux can be described by the running integral of the laser energy divided by the Hohlraum area multiplied by constant slopes in two distinct time periods. The first period is when the laser power rises rapidly, so the radiation temperature increases due to changes in laser power and wall albedo. The second period is during peak power—here, the laser power is typically held constant—so, the radiation temperature increases only due to changes in the wall albedo. This model is applied to several NIF designs with different Hohlraum sizes, laser pulse length durations, and peak powers and energies. Drive and symmetry models can be combined to find regions of parameter space that have high capsule absorbed energy while maintaining a symmetric implosion. We propose a new metric for evaluating designs based on minimizing the radius at which the maximum implosion kinetic energy is achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a data-based model for low mode asymmetry in low gas-fill hohlraum experiments on the National Ignition Facility {NIF [Moses et al., Fusion Sci. Technol. 69, 1 (2016)]} laser. This model is based on the hypothesis that the asymmetry in these low fill hohlraums is dominated by the hydrodynamics of the expanding, low density, high-Z (gold or uranium) “bubble,” which occurs where the intense outer cone laser beams hit the high-Z hohlraum wall. We developed a simple model which states that the implosion symmetry becomes more oblate as the high-Z bubble size becomes large compared to the hohlraum radius or the capsule size becomes large compared to the hohlraum radius. This simple model captures the trends that we see in data that span much of the parameter space of interest for NIF ignition experiments. We are now using this model as a constraint on new designs for experiments on the NIF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on the first layered deuterium-tritium (DT) capsule implosions indirectly driven by a "highfoot" laser pulse that were fielded in depleted uranium hohlraums at the National Ignition Facility. Recently, high-foot implosions have demonstrated improved resistance to ablation-front Rayleigh-Taylor instability induced mixing of ablator material into the DT hot spot [Hurricane et a l, Nature (London) 506, 343 (2014)]. Uranium hohlraums provide a higher albedo and thus an increased drive equivalent to an additional 25 TW laser power at the peak of the drive compared to standard gold hohlraums leading to higher implosion velocity. Additionally, we observe an improved hot-spot shape closer to round which indicates enhanced drive from the waist. In contrast to findings in the National Ignition Campaign, now all of our highest performing experiments have been done in uranium hohlraums and achieved total yields approaching 1016 neutrons where more than 50% of the yield was due to additional heating of alpha particles stopping in the DT fuel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By increasing the velocity in "high foot" implosions [Dittrich et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 055002 (2014); Park et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 055001 (2014); Hurricane et al., Nature 506, 343 (2014); Hurricane et al., Phys. Plasmas 21, 056314 (2014)] on the National Ignition Facility laser, we have nearly doubled the neutron yield and the hotspot pressure as compared to the implosions reported upon last year. The implosion velocity has been increased using a combination of the laser (higher power and energy), the hohlraum (depleted uranium wall material with higher opacity and lower specific heat than gold hohlraums), and the capsule (thinner capsules with less mass). We find that the neutron yield from these experiments scales systematically with a velocity-like parameter of the square root of the laser energy divided by the ablator mass. By connecting this parameter with the inferred implosion velocity (v), we find that for shots with primary yield >1 × 1015 neutrons, the total yield ~v9.4. This increase is considerably faster than the expected dependence for implosions without alpha heating (~v5.9) and is additional evidence that these experiments have significant alpha heating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advances in hohlraums for inertial confinement fusion at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) were made this past year in hohlraum efficiency, dynamic shape control, and hot electron and x-ray preheat control. Recent experiments are exploring hohlraum behavior over a large landscape of parameters by changing the hohlraum shape, gas-fill, and laser pulse. Radiation hydrodynamic modeling, which uses measured backscatter, shows that gas-filled hohlraums utilize between 60% and 75% of the laser power to match the measured bang-time, whereas near-vacuum hohlraums utilize 98%. Experiments seem to be pointing to deficiencies in the hohlraum (instead of capsule) modeling to explain most of the inefficiency in gas-filled targets. Experiments have begun quantifying the Cross Beam Energy Transfer (CBET) rate at several points in time for hohlraum experiments that utilize CBET for implosion symmetry. These measurements will allow better control of the dynamic implosion symmetry for these targets. New techniques are being developed to measure the hot electron energy and energy spectra generated at both early and late time. Rugby hohlraums offer a target which requires little to no CBET and may be less vulnerable to undesirable dynamic symmetry "swings." A method for detecting the effect of the energetic electrons on the fuel offers a direct measure of the hot electron effects as well as a means to test energetic electron mitigation methods. At higher hohlraum radiation temperatures (including near vacuum hohlraums), the increased hard x-rays (1.8-4 keV) may pose an x-ray preheat problem. Future experiments will explore controlling these x-rays with advanced wall materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "High-Foot" platform manipulates the laser pulse-shape coming from the National Ignition Facility laser to create an indirect drive 3-shock implosion that is significantly more robust against instability growth involving the ablator and also modestly reduces implosion convergence ratio. This strategy gives up on theoretical high-gain in an inertial confinement fusion implosion in order to obtain better control of the implosion and bring experimental performance in-line with calculated performance, yet keeps the absolute capsule performance relatively high. In this paper, we will cover the various experimental and theoretical motivations for the high-foot drive as well as cover the experimental results that have come out of the high-foot experimental campaign. At the time of this writing, the high-foot implosion has demonstrated record total deuterium-tritium yields (9.3 × 1015) with low levels of inferred mix, excellent agreement with implosion simulations, fuel energy gains exceeding unity, and evidence for the "bootstrapping" associated with alpha-particle self-heating [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ignition is needed to make fusion energy a viable alternative energy source, but has yet to be achieved. A key step on the way to ignition is to have the energy generated through fusion reactions in an inertially confined fusion plasma exceed the amount of energy deposited into the deuterium-tritium fusion fuel and hotspot during the implosion process, resulting in a fuel gain greater than unity. Here we report the achievement of fusion fuel gains exceeding unity on the US National Ignition Facility using a 'high-foot' implosion method, which is a manipulation of the laser pulse shape in a way that reduces instability in the implosion. These experiments show an order-of-magnitude improvement in yield performance over past deuterium-tritium implosion experiments. We also see a significant contribution to the yield from α-particle self-heating and evidence for the 'bootstrapping' required to accelerate the deuterium-tritium fusion burn to eventually 'run away' and ignite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indirect drive experiments have now been carried out with laser powers and energies up to 520 TW and 1.9 MJ. These experiments show that the energy coupling to the target is nearly constant at 84% ± 3% over a wide range of laser parameters from 350 to 520 TW and 1.2 to 1.9 MJ. Experiments at 520 TW with depleted uranium hohlraums achieve radiation temperatures of ∼330 ± 4 eV, enough to drive capsules 20 μm thicker than the ignition point design to velocities near the ignition goal of 370 km/s. A series of three symcap implosion experiments with nearly identical target, laser, and diagnostics configurations show the symmetry and drive are reproducible at the level of ±8.5% absolute and ±2% relative, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first inertial confinement fusion implosion experiments with equimolar deuterium-tritium thermonuclear fuel have been performed on the National Ignition Facility. These experiments use 0.17 mg of fuel with the potential for ignition and significant fusion yield conditions. The thermonuclear fuel has been fielded as a cryogenic layer on the inside of a spherical plastic capsule that is mounted in the center of a cylindrical gold hohlraum. Heating the hohlraum with 192 laser beams for a total laser energy of 1.6 MJ produces a soft x-ray field with 300 eV temperature. The ablation pressure produced by the radiation field compresses the initially 2.2-mm diameter capsule by a factor of 30 to a spherical dense fuel shell that surrounds a central hot-spot plasma of 50 μm diameter. While an extensive set of x-ray and neutron diagnostics has been applied to characterize hot spot formation from the x-ray emission and 14.1 MeV deuterium-tritium primary fusion neutrons, thermonuclear fuel assembly is studied by measuring the down-scattered neutrons with energies in the range of 10 to 12 MeV. X-ray and neutron imaging of the compressed core and fuel indicate a fuel thickness of (14 ± 3) μm, which combined with magnetic recoil spectrometer measurements of the fuel areal density of (1 ± 0.09) g cm-2 result in fuel densities approaching 600 g cm-3. The fuel surrounds a hot-spot plasma with average ion temperatures of (3.5 ± 0.1) keV that is measured with neutron time of flight spectra. The hot-spot plasma produces a total fusion neutron yield of 1015 that is measured with the magnetic recoil spectrometer and nuclear activation diagnostics that indicate a 14.1 MeV yield of (7.5±0.1)×1014 which is 70% to 75% of the total fusion yield due to the high areal density. Gamma ray measurements provide the duration of nuclear activity of (170 ± 30) ps. These indirect-drive implosions result in the highest areal densities and neutron yields achieved on laser facilities to date. This achievement is the result of the first hohlraum and capsule tuning experiments where the stagnation pressures have been systematically increased by more than a factor of 10 by fielding low-entropy implosions through the control of radiation symmetry, small hot electron production, and proper shock timing. The stagnation pressure is above 100 Gbars resulting in high Lawson-type confinement parameters of Pτ ≃ 10 atm s. Comparisons with radiation-hydrodynamic simulations indicate that the pressure is within a factor of three required for reaching ignition and high yield. This will be the focus of future higher-velocity implosions that will employ additional optimizations of hohlraum, capsule and laser pulse shape conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Achieving inertial confinement fusion ignition requires a symmetric, high velocity implosion. Experiments show that we can reach 95 ± 5% of the required velocity by using a 420 TW, 1.6 MJ laser pulse. In addition, experiments with a depleted uranium hohlraum show an increase in capsule performance which suggests an additional 18 ± 5 μm/ns of velocity with uranium hohlraums over gold hohlraums. Combining these two would give 99 ± 5% of the ignition velocity. Experiments show that we have the ability to tune symmetry using crossbeam transfer. We can control the second Legendre mode (P2) by changing the wavelength separation between the inner and outer cones of laser beams. We can control the azimuthal m = 4 asymmetry by changing the wavelength separation between the 23.5 and 30 degree beams on NIF. This paper describes our 'first pass' tuning the implosion velocity and shape on the National Ignition Facility laser [Moses et al., Phys. Plasmas, 16, 041006 (2009)]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A capability to analyze laser-plasma interactions (LPI) for ignition targets to be fielded at the National Ignition Facility has been developed and exercised. LPI in these targets may cause direct energy loss (backscatter) or energy redirection (beam spray, deflection, and energy transfer). These analyses range from analyzing the gain exponents for backscatter and beam spray to performing massively parallel, three-dimensional simulations of laser beam propagation in the most promising candidate ignition target designs. In the former assessment, ignition designs are iterated to reduce the gain exponent values. In the latter, beam propagation simulations are performed to analyze the reflectivity and beam transmission of speckled laser beams in the computed plasma profiles of the ignition targets. In current ignition designs, laser reflectivity is calculated to be well below 10%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study that investigates parallel programs and the Chapel language. Here, the researchers consider productivity challenges for parallel programmers and explore ways which parallel language design might help improve end-user productivity. Furthermore, they also surveyed techniques for parallel programming and describe ways in which they consider them to fall short of their idealized productive programming model. Details on the Chapel's features and how they help address parallel productivity are also discussed in the study.

Coupling efficiency, the ratio of the capsule absorbed energy to the driver energy, is a key parameter in ignition target designs. The hohlraum originally proposed for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) [G. H. Miller, E. I. Moses, and C. R. Wuest, Nucl. Fusion 44, S228 (2004)] coupled ∼11% of the absorbed laser energy to the capsule as x rays. Described here is a second generation of the hohlraum target which has a higher coupling efficiency, ∼16%. Because the ignition capsule’s ability to withstand three-dimensional effects increases rapidly with absorbed energy, the additional energy can significantly increase the likelihood of ignition. The new target includes laser entrance hole (LEH) shields as a principal method for increasing coupling efficiency while controlling symmetry in indirect-drive inertial confinement fusion. The LEH shields are high Z disks placed inside the hohlraum on the symmetry axis to block the capsule’s view of the relatively cold LEHs. The LEH shields can reduce the amount of laser energy required to drive a target to a given temperature via two mechanisms: (1) keeping the temperature high near the capsule pole by putting a barrier between the capsule and the pole; (2) because the capsule pole does not have a view of the cold LEHs, good symmetry requires a shorter hohlraum with less wall area. Current integrated simulations of this class of target couple 140 kJ of x rays to a capsule out of 865 kJ of absorbed laser energy and produce ∼10 MJ of yield. In the current designs, which continue to be optimized, the addition of the LEH shields saves ∼95 kJ of energy (about 10%) over hohlraums without LEH shields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We consider gain curves for Fast Ignition that have the following ingredients: hydrodynamic efficiency of the implosion for a range of drive intensities, density of the assembled fuel resulting from the reflected shock produced at the culmination of the implosion, effective particle range produced in the laser–plasma interaction as well as the heat capacity of the ignition region as determined by Atzeni. The dependence of the gain curves on the coupling efficiency from ignition laser to fuel, allowed in-flight-aspect-ratio, compressed fuel density profile and fraction of implosion energy in the compressed fuel is shown. In addition the fraction of the total driver energy devoted to the ignition driver that maximizes the gain is shown. These estimates will be made for systems where the implosion is directly driven with a laser of various colors or indirectly with a heavy ion beam. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The decline in the interest in ethical theory is first outlined, as a background to the author's discussion of principlism. The author's own stance, that of a communitarian philosopher, is then described, before the subject of principlism itself is addressed. Two problems stand in the way of the author's embracing principlism: its individualistic bias and its capacity to block substantive ethical inquiry. The more serious problem the author finds to be its blocking function. Discussing the four scenarios the author finds that the utility of principlism is shown in the two scenarios about Jehovah's Witnesses but that when it comes to selling kidneys for transplantation and germline enhancement, principlism is of little help. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indirect-drive targets for heavy-ion fusion must initially be heated by "foot" pulses that precede the main heating pulses by tens of nanoseconds. These pulses typically have a lower energy and perveance than the main pulses, and the fusion-chamber environment is different from that seen by later pulses. The preliminary particle-in-cell simulations of foot pulses here examine the sensitivity of the beam focusing to ion-beam perveance, background-gas density, and pre-neutralization by a plasma near the chamber entry port. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question of whether aging is a disease is old and controverted. Three possible positions are outlined: (i) aging is a natural event, not a disease; (ii) aging is a disease, to be combated by medical knowledge and skills; and (iii) aging, while natural, can be treated as if it is a disease and efforts made to lessen its undesirable impact. The last position seems, de facto, the one that is being pursued by contemporary medicine; however, in such a pursuit, important issues will be raised of intergenerational justice in paying for advances in medicine, and the need to balance the medical goals of care for aged people against other important social needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ponders how we can best make moral judgements about those issues that combine factual and normative ingredients? Effort to define the meaning of medical `futility'; Defining minimally adequate health care; Need to draw a distinction between scientific knowledge and moral and political judgements; More.

Comments on the involvement of Jewish scholars in the arena of bioethics. Effects of Jewish law and tradition; Influence of the holocaust; Traditional vs. Liberal scholars.

Questions whether there is a role for theology in the realm of bioethics. Religion vs. theology in bioethics. Religious role in a pluralistic society; Influence of religiously based values.

Argues that a theologian's primary audience is the community of faith. Theological candor; Nurturing discourse.

Opinion. Argues for the inevitable rationing of health care, which the author says is necessary to contain costs due to the increase in health care service demands and the explosion of new health care technologies.

Top-order predators play an important role in the structure and function of marine ecosystems. Optimal foraging theory predicts that predators will utilise foraging strategies that maximise their net energetic intake, and consequently, individuals within a population may utilise alternate strategies to target different prey resources. The present study investigated variation within the diet of 41 male Australian fur seals (Arctocephalus pusillus doriferus) using quantitative fatty-acid signature analysis (QFASA) of blubber. The study was conducted during the pre-breeding seasons of 2012 and 2013 and the non-breeding seasons of 2013 and 2014 at a colony on Kanowna Island (39°10′S, 146°18′E) in northern Bass Strait, southeastern Australia. QFASA models revealed that while males consumed prey commonly reported within the diet of Australian fur seals, elasmobranchs were more important than previously reported. Prey composition also varied between males which may reflect individuals using different strategies to target different resources, which ultimately broadens the trophic niche of a species and reduces intra-specific competition. Furthermore, substantial temporal variation in male diet was apparent presumably reflecting variation in the distribution, availability, and abundance of prey resources within Bass Strait at the time of sampling. Given that the energetic content of prey is expected to differ between species, temporal variation in dietary composition presumably has important implications for the growth and reproductive success of males. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the secularization of bioethics. History of bioethics; Insights of religion on the study of bioethics; Joseph Fletcher's book, `Medicine and Morals'; Possible consequences of secularization.

Shows how periodic line structures with a period of 167 nm and linewidths varying from 35 to 100 nm have been produced on polyimide by direct ablation with a KrF laser using an interferometric technique. Spontaneous growth of periodic surface structures due to radiation remnants; Factors affecting the ultimate spatial resolution of an optical system.

HYBRID-E is an inertial confinement fusion implosion design that increases energy coupled to the hot spot by increasing the capsule scale in cylindrical hohlraums while operating within the current experimental limits of the National Ignition Facility. HYBRID-E reduces the hohlraum scale at a fixed capsule size compared to previous HYBRID designs, thereby increasing the hohlraum efficiency and energy coupled to the capsule, and uses the cross-beam energy transfer (CBET) to control the implosion symmetry by operating the inner (23° and 30°) and outer (44° and 50°) laser beams at different wavelengths (Δ λ > 0). Small case to capsule ratio designs can suffer from insufficient drive at the waist of the hohlraum. We show that only a small amount of wavelength separation between the inner and outer beams (Δ λ 1–2 Å) is required to control the symmetry in low-gas-filled hohlraums (0.3 mg/cm3 He) with enough drive at the waist of the hohlraum to symmetrically drive capsules 1180 μm in outer radius. This campaign is the first to use the CBET to control the symmetry in 0.3 mg/cm3 He-filled hohlraums, the lowest gas fill density yet fielded with Δ λ > 0. We find a stronger sensitivity of hot spot P2 in μm per Angstrom (40–50 μm/Å wavelength separation) than observed in high-gas-filled hohlraums and previous longer pulse designs that used a hohlraum gas fill density of 0.6 mg/cm3. There is currently no indication of transfer roll-off with increasing Δ λ , indicating that even longer pulses or larger capsules could be driven using the CBET in cylindrical hohlraums. We show that the radiation flux symmetry is well controlled during the foot of the pulse, and that the entire implosion can be tuned symmetrically in the presence of the CBET in this system, with low levels of laser backscatter out of the hohlraum and low levels of hot electron production from intense laser–plasma interactions. Radiation hydrodynamic simulations can accurately represent the early shock symmetry and be used as a design tool, but cannot predict the late-time radiation flux symmetry during the peak of the pulse, and semi-empirical models are used to design the experiments. Deuterium–tritium (DT)-layered tests of 1100 μm inner radius implosions showed performance close to expectations from simulations at velocities up to ∼360 km/s, and record yields at this velocity, when increasing the DT fuel layer thickness to mitigate hydrodynamic mixing of the ablator into the hot spot as a result of defects in the ablator. However, when the implosion velocity was increased, mixing due to these defects impacted performance. The ratio of measured to simulated yield for these experiments was directly correlated with the level of observed mixing. These simulations suggest that reducing the mixing, e.g., by improving the capsule defects, could result in higher performance. In addition, future experiments are planned to reduce the coast time at this scale, delay between the peak compression and the end of the laser, to increase the hot spot convergence and pressure. To reduce the coast time by several hundred ps compared to the 1100 μm inner radius implosions, HYBRID-E has also fielded 1050 μm inner radius capsules, which resulted in higher hot spot pressure and a fusion energy yield of ∼170 kJ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Editorial. Discusses efforts to encourage the use of bicycle helmets. Presents arguments for and against safety legislation.

Comments on the changes in the government's polices on health care for the elderly. Declaration by the Reagan Administration of an increase in the premiums for the Medicare program; Recognition of the inevitable rise in costs for the health care; Cost projections; Advocation for a re-evaluation of the relationship between health care and old age; Limitations of basing the system on life-extending technology care.

A correction to the article "Fuel gain exceeding unity in an inertially confined fusion implosion" that was published in 2014 issue is presented.

Integrated radiation hydrodynamic modeling in two dimensions, including the hohlraum and capsule, of layered cryogenic HighFoot Deuterium-Tritium (DT) implosions on the NIF successfully predicts important data trends. The model consists of a semi-empirical fit to low mode asymmetries and radiation drive multipliers to match shock trajectories, one dimensional inflight radiography, and time of peak neutron production. Application of the model across the HighFoot shot series, over a range of powers, laser energies, laser wavelengths, and target thicknesses predicts the neutron yield to within a factor of two for most shots. The Deuterium-Deuterium ion temperatures and the DT down scattered ratios, ratio of (10-12)/(13-15) MeV neutrons, roughly agree with data at peak fuel velocities <340 km/s and deviate at higher peak velocities, potentially due to flows and neutron scattering differences stemming from 3D or capsule support tent effects. These calculations show a significant amount alpha heating, 1-2.5× for shots where the experimental yield is within a factor of two, which has been achieved by increasing the fuel kinetic energy. This level of alpha heating is consistent with a dynamic hot spot model that is matched to experimental data and as determined from scaling of the yield with peak fuel velocity. These calculations also show that low mode asymmetries become more important as the fuel velocity is increased, and that improving these low mode asymmetries can result in an increase in the yield by a factor of several. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Questions the economic benefits of medical treatments and pharmaceuticals and economic effects of the anticipated increase in the number of elderly people requiring health care. Summary of proposals in the United States; Suggestion of society putting more resources into improving health during younger years; Changes required to enact this population-based approach.

Examines the economic consequences of palliation. Our present health system legitimates, in the name of health, the most unbridled self-interest; Understanding the economic context from which the problem arises; Other aspects of modern health care and ethical interest.