5th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE FRONTIERS OF PLASMA PHYSICS AND TECHNOLOGY

18-22 April 2011, Singapore, Republic of Singapore


HIPER, THE EUROPEAN PROJECT ON LASER FUSION

J.T. Mendonça

IPFN, Instituto Superior Técnico, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal


Abstract.  Energy resources are a major concern for the future of Mankind. With the plausible decline of fossil energy in the next decades, Nuclear Fusion is one of the major energy solutions on the long term. For many years, Europe has concentrated on Magnetic Fusion, but recently a consortium of European laboratories launched an ambitious project aiming to explore the alternative approach of Laser Fusion, the HIPER project. The main targets and challenges of this project will be presented in this talk. HIPER is based on a high repetition rate laser system, compatible with a future Laser Fusion reactor, and it aims to explore improved ignition configurations, such as Fast and Shock Ignition. The 3-years preparatory phase of this project started in 2009 is approaching its conclusion. The future of the project strongly depends on the results provided by NIF, which are at the threshold of demonstrating ignition. The mood on Fusion research is about to change.