28.5 million US dollars! The US Department of Energy supports SLAC in developing high-power laser fusion technology

Recently, the research and technological development work in plasma physics and fusion energy at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory of the US Department of Energy has received support and promotion from LaserNetUS for up to $28.5 million.

It is reported that the Science Office of the US Department of Energy has allocated $28.5 million to promote the discovery of science and inertial fusion energy, including a three-year funding for the development and operation of material under extreme conditions (MEC) instruments on the SLAC linear accelerator coherent light source (LCLS).

Since 2012, MEC has been the location of high-intensity laser experiments and joined the LaserNetUS network as a founding member in 2018. The new funding from the US Department of Energy will focus additional efforts on establishing the science and technology needed to develop inertial fusion energy.

Last year, the nuclear fusion breakthrough of the national ignition device established the potential of inertial fusion energy. In this type of energy, net energy can be generated by heating and compressing fuel particles with powerful lasers.

Gillis Dyer, head of the MEC department and chief scientist, stated that since then, scientists in the field have gathered to identify the most important basic research needs for achieving this potential future energy source. The scientific seminar organized by the US Department of Energy Office published the IFE Basic Research Needs Report on this topic.

Dyer stated, "MEC will prioritize research on inertial fusion energy for the first time through the development of capabilities and configurations, the promotion of LaserNetUS, and the allocation of dedicated facilities for such research. The goal is to provide up to 50% of MEC beam time for experiments related to inertial fusion energy.

By developing a new generation of hotter and denser plasma diagnostic technology, the network activities of MEC and other facilities will also lay the foundation for significant upgrades of MEC.

In addition to inertial fusion energy science, high-power, high-intensity lasers have extensive applications in basic research, manufacturing, and medicine. For example, they can be used to generate high-energy particle beams for cancer treatment, as well as to detect trace elements in the environment.

SLAC's MEC instrument also makes it possible to conduct unique research on extremely hot and dense materials discovered at the centers of stars and giant planets. The optical laser of this instrument - one used to study thermal and dynamic plasmas, and the other used to drive shock waves in materials to study high pressure - combined with LCLS's world-leading X-ray laser beam, has produced many scientific achievements, which are published in some mainstream journals at present.

LaserNetUS was established by the Fusion Energy Science Program of the US Department of Energy Science Office. It provides open and free access to the most powerful lasers in universities and national laboratories across the United States and Canada for researchers from both the United States and abroad. The network currently has over 1200 members. The management of LaserNetUS was focused on SLAC in 2021, and SLAC scientist Chandra Breanne Curry has been appointed as the first coordinator of the alliance.

Source: OFweek