Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have found that implosions designed for inertial fusion energy (IFE) can tolerate significant imperfections before performance abruptly declines, a finding that could inform the design of fuel targets for future fusion power plants.

The findings were detailed in a paper titled “Robustness of inertial fusion energy relevant implosions to low-mode asymmetries,” recently published in Physics of Plasmas and selected for the journal’s cover. The study was led by LLNL physicist Timothy Johnson, who directed the research and analysis, along with coauthors Daniel Casey, Chris Weber, Omar Hurricane, Ryan Nora and Seth Davidovits.