Indirect drive inertial fusion using heavy ion cluster beams

Energetic heavy ion clusters may be used as an efficient driver for inertial confinement fusion. Such cluster beams may implode direct drive as well as indirect drive targets. This paper discusses the advantages of using a cluster driver as compared to a heavy ion driver from the point of view of a target designer. Numerical simulation results of implosion of a reactor-size, indirect drive target are also presented. This target is imploded by a homogeneous radiation field that may be generated by heavy ion beam or a cluster beam. About 5.4 MJ input radiation energy is needed to implode the target and the implosion yields 770 MJ output thermonuclear energy so that the overall target gain is of the order of 140.