Supervisors: Dr. Tom Goffrey (Phys), Prof. Tony Arber (Phys)

Summary:

The recent successes at the National Ignition Facility in achieving fusion gain from laser-driven implosions is major step forward for fusion research. For UK based researchers the next step is to work towards a direct-driven laser fusion facility. Such a step requires predictive models for laser system and fuel pellet design. Such codes are also needed now to interpret existing experimental data.

Warwick has developed a dedicated fluid code for this work but it is missing some key physics packages. The code needs to include fusion reactions and alpha particle energy deposition. This involves coupling particle based MC codes to the fluid code with quantifiable estimates of uncertainty. The project is part funded and supervised by the Central Laser Facility at the Rutherford laboratory and is part of a much wider UK coordinated fusion programme.