Inertial confinement fusion (ICF) is an approach to fusion that relies on the inertia of the fuel mass to provide confinement. To achieve conditions under which inertial confinement is sufficient for efficient thermonuclear burn, a capsule (generally a spherical shell) containing thermonuclear fuel is compressed in an implosion process to conditions of high density and temperature. ICF capsules rely on either electron conduction (direct drive) or x rays (indirect drive) for energy transport to drive an implosion. In direct drive, the laser beams (or charged particle beams) are aimed directly at a target. The laser energy is transferred to electrons by means of inverse bremsstrahlung or a variety of plasma collective processes. In indirect drive, the driver energy (from laser beams or ion beams) is first absorbed in a high‐Z enclosure (a hohlraum), which surrounds the capsule. The material heated by the driver emits x rays, which drive the capsule implosion. For optimally designed targets, 70%–80% of the d...

/pdf/development-of-the-indirect-drive-approach-to-inertial-314a4yq250.pdf

Development of the indirect‐drive approach to inertial confinement fusion and the target physics basis for ignition and gain

Sinusitis, enlarged nasal turbinates, tumors, infections, hearing disorders, allergic conditions, facial fractures and other disorders of the ear, nose and throat are diagnosed and/or treated using minimally invasive approaches and, in many cases, flexible catheters as opposed to instruments having rigid shafts. Various diagnostic procedures and devices are used to perform imaging studies, mucus flow studies, air/gas flow studies, anatomic dimension studies, endoscopic studies and transillumination studies. Access and occluder devices may be used to establish fluid tight seals in the anterior or posterior nasal cavities/nasopharynx and to facilitate insertion of working devices (e.g., scopes, guidewires, catheters, tissue cutting or remodeling devices, electrosurgical devices, energy emitting devices, devices for injecting diagnostic or therapeutic agents, devices for implanting devices such as stents, substance eluting devices, substance delivery implants, etc.

Devices, systems and methods for diagnosing and treating sinusitis and other disorders of the ears, nose and/or throat

Methods and apparatus for treating disorders of the ear, nose, throat or paranasal sinuses, including methods and apparatus for dilating ostia, passageways and other anatomical structures, endoscopic methods and apparatus for endoscopic visualization of structures within the ear, nose, throat or paranasal sinuses, navigation devices for use in conjunction with image guidance or navigation system and hand held devices having pistol type grips and other handpieces.

Methods and apparatus for treating disorders of the ear, nose and throat

Sinusitis, mucocysts, tumors, infections, hearing disorders, choanal atresia, fractures and other disorders of the paranasal sinuses, Eustachian tubes, Lachrymal ducts and other ear, nose, throat and mouth structures are diagnosed and/or treated using minimally invasive approaches and, in many cases, flexible catheters as opposed to instruments having rigid shafts. Various diagnostic procedures and devices are used to perform imaging studies, mucus flow studies, air/gas flow studies, anatomic dimension studies and endoscopic studies. Access and occluding devices may be used to facilitate insertion of working devices such asendoscopes, wires, probes, needles, catheters, balloon catheters, dilation catheters, dilators, balloons, tissue cutting or remodeling devices, suction or irrigation devices, imaging devices, sizing devices, biopsy devices, image-guided devices containing sensors or transmitters, electrosurgical devices, energy emitting devices, devices for injecting diagnostic or therapeutic agents, devices for implanting devices such as stents, substance eluting or delivering devices and implants, etc.

Devices, systems and methods for treating disorders of the ear, nose and throat

PROGRESS TOWARD IGNITION AND BURN PROPAGATION IN INERTIAL CONFINEMENT FUSION To achieve efficient inertial confinement fusion one must produce a small hot spot within the imploding target from which thermonuclear burn can ignite.

Measurements of resistivities of quartz-bearing rocks in the vicinity of Californian faults suggest that piezoelectric fields due to low-frequency seismic waves are not responsible for earthquake lightning. Alternatives are briefly suggested.

The Piezoelectric Theory of earthquake lightning

Design of particle bed reactors for the space nuclear thermal propulsion program

A method of filling a canister with vitrified waste starting with a waste, such as high-level radioactive waste, that is cooler than its melting point. Waste is added incrementally to a canister forming a column of waste capable of being separated into an upper zone and a lower zone. The minimum height of the column is defined such that the waste in the lower zone can be dried and melted while maintaining the waste in the upper zone below its melting point. The maximum height of the column is such that the upper zone remains porous enough to permit evolved gases from the lower zone to flow through the upper zone and out of the canister. Heat is applied to the waste in the lower zone to first dry then to raise and maintain its temperature to a target temperature above the melting point of the waste. Then the heat is applied to a new lower zone above the melted waste and the process of adding, drying and melting the waste continues upward in the canister until the entire canister is filled and the entire contents are melted and maintained at the target temperature for the desired period. Cooling of the melted waste takes place incrementally from the bottom of the canister to the top, or across the entire canister surface area, forming a vitrified product.

Vitrification of waste with conitnuous filling and sequential melting

Review of the department of energy's inertial confinement fusion program

Publisher Summary Over the years there has accumulated an impressive number of reports of encounters with glowing balls of various sizes that drift through the air for seconds or minutes before softly and suddenly vanishing away or exploding. The common name for these events is ball lightning. The first scientist to observe ball lightning appears to have been G. W. Richman, who worked with M. V. Lomonosov at the St. Petersburg Academy. Richman's experiment was not very different from Benjamin Franklin's. Richman led an ungrounded lightning rod to an electrometer in his laboratory. At the inquest, the engraver I. Sokolov reported that as a thunderstorm was approaching, he saw a pale blue fireball the size of a fist leave the rod and float silently through the air to Richman's face. There was then a sound like a small cannon, at which time Sokolov lost consciousness. When he recovered there was an acrid smoke. Richman was not breathing; there was a red spot on Richman's forehead, and two holes in one of his shoes. This chapter explores a consistent model of ball lightning, explaining the principal circumstances of Richman's death and Sokolov's testimony. The outline of the work done in this chapter is as follows: Some sample ball lightning observations are given to emphasize the rather fantastic behavior often reported. Some of the published theories and related experiments that have been used to explain ball lightning are critically reviewed. This chapter describes experiments showing that just oxygen and nitrogen permit discharges of anomalously high luminous efficiency and afterglow persistence electroluminescence, experiments dating back to Rayleigh's studies of “active nitrogen.” The luminous efficiency and half-life are estimated. The presence of electroluminescent air in lightning channels is inferred from photographic records. Then the question of providing this power is considered. The electtrohydrodynamic and molecular evolution of a ball of electroluminescent air from ordinary lightning or a glow discharge in the atmospheric electric field is studied. This chapter concludes that ball lightning, it would seem, is a natural laboratory not of magnetohydrodynamics, as was once hoped, but of electrohydrodynamics and molecular physics.

James R. Powell

Papers

The Piezoelectric Theory of earthquake lightning

Design of particle bed reactors for the space nuclear thermal propulsion program

Vitrification of waste with conitnuous filling and sequential melting

Review of the department of energy's inertial confinement fusion program

Structure of Ball Llghtning