Grant: Strategic Projects Supplemental Competition

In a recent study, the Canadian Academy of Engineers has made four recommendations concerning the pursuit of clean energy pathways for Canada's future. One of these recommendations is that Canada re-establish a research program to pursue fusion energy which is the ultimate abundant and clean energy source for mankind. The current proposal is the first step towards establishing a Canadian research effort in Inertial Fusion energy (IFE) focused on the pursuit of a promising new concept called fast ignition. We are fortunate that many leading laboratories in the world still view Canada as a potential important player in the quest for fusion energy and are thus still willing to help us in the development of such a fusion research capability. In parallel, we are currently developing a major proposal for an Alberta/Canada Fusion Energy Institute, which has been forwarded to officials in the province of Alberta and the federal government. However this major proposal will take one to two years to assess and in order to start building our research capacity in this area we are requesting funding in the present proposal to initiate a research program in collaboration with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. This program will investigate the generation, transport and deposition of fast electron and proton energy which is required for the fast ignition process. Our expertise in k-alpha x-ray generation and quantitative measurements of x-rays will serve to determine the actual number densities of electrons at each stage of generation, transport and deposition into high density materials. There is little doubt that fast ignition can work to ignite the fuel pellet from a hot spot heated via these beams in a process similar to applying a match to fuel. However, the critical question is how efficiently can the energy be transferred from a 20 picosecond fast ignition laser pulse into this ignition spot using either electrons or protons which are required to penetrate into the highly compressed target core where the laser light cannot reach. The proposed research work here will help to answer these questions and will make a significant step towards the goal of achieving controlled fusion energy on earth.