Riccardo Betti | |
---|---|
Born | Rome, Italy (1963) |
Occupation | Professor at University of Rochester |
Riccardo Betti is the Robert L. McCrory professor of Mechanical Engineering and Physics and Astronomy at the University of Rochester, in Rochester, NY. [1] Since 2004, he has also acted as the Director of the Fusion Science Center at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics. [2] He received is Ph.D. from the Department of Nuclear Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA) in 1992. Prior to that he studied at the University of Rome (Italy), where he graduated with honors with a degree in Nuclear Engineering in 1987.
Dr. Betti was the Chair of the American Physical Society's Division of Plasma Physics (November, 2014-October 2015). [3]
His awards and recognitions include:
2020 Landau-Spitzer Award from the American and European Physical Societies for Outstanding Contributions to Plasma Physics. [4]
2012 recipient of the U.S. Department of Energy's Ernest O. Lawrence Award for "a series of impactful theoretical discoveries in the physics of inertial confinement fusion including seminal transformative work on thermonuclear ignition, hydrodynamic instabilities and implosion dynamics, and the development of innovative approaches to ignition and energy gains." [5]
2010 Leadership Award from Fusion Power Associates "for the leadership he has been providing to the U.S. and world inertial fusion efforts, including his contributions to the search for efficient methods of igniting fusion targets, contributions to the emerging field of high energy density physics, and his advisory role in the DOE's Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee." [6]
2009, The Edward Teller Medal from the American Nuclear Society "for seminal contributions to the theory and understanding of hydrodynamic instabilities, implosion dynamics and thermonuclear ignition in inertial confinement fusion." [7]
He has been a Fellow at the American Physical Society since 2001. In 2010, he was appointed to the Board of Physics and Astronomy of the National Academy of Sciences. [8] He was Vice Chair of the Fusion Energy Science Committee of the Department of Energy. [9]
On October 29, 2009, Dr Betti gave a statement to the U.S. House of Representative's Committee on Science and Technology Subcommittee on Energy and Environment on the "Next Generation of Fusion Energy Research."
Nuclear fusion is a reaction in which two or more atomic nuclei are combined to form one or more different atomic nuclei and subatomic particles. The difference in mass between the reactants and products is manifested as either the release or absorption of energy. This difference in mass arises due to the difference in nuclear binding energy between the atomic nuclei before and after the reaction. Nuclear fusion is the process that powers active or main-sequence stars and other high-magnitude stars, where large amounts of energy are released.
Inertial confinement fusion (ICF) is a fusion energy process that initiates nuclear fusion reactions by compressing and heating targets filled with fuel. The targets are small pellets, typically containing deuterium (2H) and tritium (3H).
Fusion power is a proposed form of power generation that would generate electricity by using heat from nuclear fusion reactions. In a fusion process, two lighter atomic nuclei combine to form a heavier nucleus, while releasing energy. Devices designed to harness this energy are known as fusion reactors. Research into fusion reactors began in the 1940s, but as of 2022, only one design, an inertial confinement laser-driven fusion machine at the US National Ignition Facility, has in any sense produced a positive fusion energy gain factor, i.e. more power output than input.
This timeline of nuclear fusion is an incomplete chronological summary of significant events in the study and use of nuclear fusion.
The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is a laser-based inertial confinement fusion (ICF) research device, located at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, United States. NIF's mission is to achieve fusion ignition with high energy gain. It achieved the first scientific breakeven controlled fusion experiment on December 5, 2022, with an energy gain factor of 1.5. It supports nuclear weapon maintenance and design by studying the behavior of matter under the conditions found within nuclear explosions.
The Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) is a scientific research facility which is part of the University of Rochester's south campus, located in Brighton, New York. The lab was established in 1970 with operations jointly funded by the United States Department of Energy, the University of Rochester and the New York State government. The Laser Lab was commissioned to investigate high-energy physics involving the interaction of extremely intense laser radiation with matter. Scientific experiments at the facility emphasize inertial confinement, direct drive, laser-induced fusion, fundamental plasma physics and astrophysics using the Omega Laser Facility. In June 1995, OMEGA became the world's highest-energy ultraviolet laser. The lab shares its building with the Center for Optoelectronics and Imaging and the Center for Optics Manufacturing. The Robert L. Sproull Center for Ultra High Intensity Laser Research was opened in 2005 and houses the OMEGA EP laser, which was completed in May 2008.
Inertial Fusion Energy is a proposed approach to building a nuclear fusion power plant based on performing inertial confinement fusion at industrial scale. This approach to fusion power is still in a research phase. ICF first developed shortly after the development of the laser in 1960, but was a classified US research program during its earliest years. In 1972, John Nuckolls wrote a paper predicting that compressing a target could create conditions where fusion reactions are chained together, a process known as fusion ignition or a burning plasma. On August 8, 2021, the NIF at Livermore National Laboratory became the first ICF facility in the world to demonstrate this. This breakthrough drove the US Department of Energy to create an Inertial Fusion Energy program in 2022 with a budget of 3 million dollars in its first year.
Magnetized liner inertial fusion (MagLIF) is an emerging method of producing controlled nuclear fusion. It is part of the broad category of inertial fusion energy (IFE) systems, which drives the inward movement of fusion fuel, thereby compressing it to reach densities and temperatures where fusion reactions occur. Previous IFE experiments used laser drivers to reach these conditions, whereas MagLIF uses a combination of lasers for heating and Z-pinch for compression. A variety of theoretical considerations suggest such a system will reach the required conditions for fusion with a machine of significantly less complexity than the pure-laser approach. There are currently at least two facilities testing feasibility of the MagLIF concept, the Z-machine at Sandia Labs in the US and Primary Test Stand (PTS) located in Mianyang, China.
LASNEX is a computer program that simulates the interactions between x-rays and a plasma, along with many effects associated with these interactions. The program is used to predict the performance of inertial confinement fusion (ICF) devices such as the Nova laser or proposed particle beam "drivers". Versions of LASNEX have been used since the late 1960s or early 1970s, and the program has been constantly updated. LASNEX's existence was mentioned in John Nuckolls' seminal paper in Nature in 1972 that first widely introduced the ICF concept, saying it was "...like breaking an enemy code. It tells you how many divisions to bring to bear on a problem."
Omar Hurricane is a physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in the thermonuclear and inertial confinement fusion design division. Prior to Lawrence Livermore, he worked at the UCLA Institute of Plasma & Fusion Research. His research focuses on weapons physics, high energy density physics (HEDP) science, the theory of plasmas, and plasma instability.
Robert James Goldston is a professor of astrophysics at Princeton University and a former director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.
Ksenia Aleksandrovna Razumova is a Russian physicist. She graduated from the Physical Faculty of Moscow University in 1955 and took a position at the then called Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy in Moscow, then USSR. She defended her Ph.D. in 1966, was Candidate in Physical and Mathematical sciences in 1967, and became Doctor of Sciences in 1984. She is laboratory head at the Institute of Nuclear Fusion, Russian Research Centre Kurchatov Institute. Since the beginning she is actively involved plasma physics in research on the tokamak line of Magnetic confinement fusion.
John D. Lindl is an American physicist who specializes in inertial confinement fusion (ICF). He is currently the Chief Scientist of the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
The history of nuclear fusion began early in the 20th century as an inquiry into how stars powered themselves and expanded to incorporate a broad inquiry into the nature of matter and energy, as potential applications expanded to include warfare, energy production and rocket propulsion.
Christine Garban-Labaune is a French plasma physicist known for her research in inertial confinement fusion.
Tammy Ma is an American plasma physicist who works on inertial confinement fusion at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Sharon Gail Glendinning is an American experimental physicist.
Denise Hinkel is a plasma physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Carolyn C. Kuranz is an American plasma physicist whose research involves the use of high-powered lasers at the National Ignition Facility both to help develop inertial confinement fusion and to study how matter behaves in conditions similar to those in shock waves in astrophysics. She is an associate professor at the University of Michigan, in the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences.
Andrea "Annie" Kritcher is an American nuclear engineer and physicist who works at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. She was responsible for the development of Hybrid-E, a capsule that enables inertial confinement fusion. She was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2022.