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Inertial Confinement

Another method for the confinement of fusion is the Inertial Confinement Method. It is named this because the length of the reaction is determined by the inertia of the fuel itself. In this method, laser or particle beams are aimed at a small capsule of fuel.

The fuel capsule.

The high temperatures of the beams evaporate and vaporize the outer layer of the material, leading to the creation of a plasma crown. As this expands, it generates compression (up to 1000 times the material's density) that heats the inside of the capsule. When the internal temperature reaches one hundred million degrees, the fuel ignites and fusion occurs. The reaction then spreads through the compressed capsule, producing energy several times greater than what was deposited by the beams.
The heart of the Inertial Containment Reactor.

The majority of research so far involving this type of fusion has dealt with laser beams. These powerful flashes of light, with varied wavelengths and duration, are focused on the capsule to initiate fusion. However, our modern lasers are very inefficient. To be used in a commercial fusion plant, laser technology would first have to greatly improve. Another option in Inertial Confinement is ion beams instead of lasers. The ion beams are much more efficient, but are still very experimental. The biggest problem is the beam's short span. An intense enough beam to cause the reaction only lasts about 10 nanoseconds. To compensate, scientists must compress the beam and make it stronger.



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