Inertial Confinement Fusion: Status and Challenges

Abstract

While a variety of laboratory-based fusion schemes have been studied for decades, the only fusion scheme yet to demonstrate fusion ignition and significant energy gain has been X-ray-driven inertially confined fusion. Ignition was demonstrated to occur at the thermodynamic conditions where it had long been expected, but the energy required for the implosion system to reach these conditions was more than projected years ago. This short review gives a status update on the three principal inertial confinement fusion schemes and research challenges going forward.