Back to results
US 2026/0229373 A1Published application
Direct laser fusion system
AssigneeBlue Laser Fusion, Inc.
InventorsShuji NAKAMURA, Hiroaki OHTA
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In an example, the present invention provides a laser fusion system comprising a reactor, a fusion material within an interior region of the reactor, and a high intensity pulse laser generation system configured by a hub and spoke spatial arrangement of laser cavity regions within the reactor.
Claims29
A laser fusion system, the system comprising:
- a reactor housing, the reactor housing having an interior region maintained in a vacuum environment;
- a reaction region within a vicinity of a spatially center region of the reactor housing;
- a peripheral region formed within an interior of the reactor housing, the peripheral region surrounding the reactor region;
- a plurality of cavity regions numbered from 1 through N within the interior region of the reactor housing and spatially configured around the peripheral region such that each of the plurality of cavity regions extending from a first side of the peripheral region to a second side of the peripheral region, the first side opposing the second side, and forming a linear path along a diameter of the interior region, such that the plurality of cavity regions forms a hub and spoke configuration, each cavity region having a center region concentric with the reactor region and each cavity region has a first end coupled to the first side and a second end coupled to the second side of the peripheral region, where N is greater than 10;
- a pair of mirrors configured, respectively, on the first end and the second end of the cavity regions;
- a laser light source configured to emit electromagnetic radiation coupled to at least one of the pair of mirror devices such that a laser beam propagating from the laser light source between the pair of mirror devices increases in energy intensity from a first intensity to a second intensity to an Mth intensity for M cycles of the laser beam propagating between the pair of mirror devices, where M is greater than 1,000 cycles;
- a fuel pellet or container comprising the fuel pellet inside disposed within the reactor region and coupled to the plurality of cavity regions as each of the plurality of cavity regions spatially intersect within the reactor region to provide an energy level sufficient to ignite the fuel pellet for a fusion reaction;
- a blanket structure configured within the reactor housing;
- and
- a heat exchange medium surrounding the blanket structure.
7 more elements
4. A laser fusion system, the system comprising:
- a reactor housing, the reactor housing having an interior region maintained in a vacuum environment,
- a plurality of aperture regions spatially disposed along a periphery of the reactor housing, each of the aperture regions having an aperture size of A;
- a reaction region within a vicinity of a spatially center region of the reactor housing, the reaction region characterized by a reactor length extending along a major cross-section of the reactor region;
- a plurality of cavity regions numbered from 1 through N in communication with the reaction region such that each of the plurality of cavity regions spatially disposed through the reaction region, configured through a pair of aperture regions opposing each other, and extending outside of the reaction region such that the plurality of cavity regions forms a hub and spoke configuration and are characterized by an intersection region within the spatially center region of the reaction region, where N is greater than 10;
- a pair of mirrors configured, respectively, on the first end and the second end of each of the cavity regions, each of the mirrors having a mirror size of W;
- a laser light source configured to emit electromagnetic radiation coupled to at least one of the pair of mirror devices such that a laser beam propagating from the laser light source between the pair of mirror devices increases in energy intensity from a first intensity to a second intensity to an Mth intensity for M cycles of the laser beam propagating between the pair of mirror devices, where M is greater than 1,000 cycles;
- a fuel pellet or a container comprising the fuel pellet inside disposed within the reactor region and coupled to the plurality of cavity regions as each of the plurality of cavity regions spatially intersect within the reactor region to provide an energy level sufficient to ignite the fuel pellet for a fusion reaction;
- and
- a ratio of W/A of at least 2 up to 500 configured to reduce any damage to one or more of mirror devices by reducing the aperture size to a predetermined dimension to prevent the radiation of the fusion reaction generated at a center of reaction region to interact with the mirror device through any one of the cavity regions.
6 more elements
A laser fusion system, the system comprising:
- a reactor housing, the reactor housing having an interior region maintained in a vacuum environment,
- at least a pair of aperture regions spatially disposed along a periphery of the reactor housing, each of the aperture regions having an aperture size of A;
- a reaction region within a vicinity of a spatially center region of the reactor housing, the reaction region characterized by a reactor length extending along a major cross-section of the reactor region;
- at least one cavity region in communication with the reaction region such that the optical cavity region is spatially disposed through the reaction region, configured through the pair of aperture regions opposing each other, and extending outside of the reaction region;
- a pair of mirrors configured, respectively, on the first end and the second end of the cavity regions, each of the mirrors having a mirror size of W;
- a laser light source configured to emit electromagnetic radiation coupled to one of the pair of mirror devices such that a laser beam propagating from the laser light source between the pair of mirror devices within the cavity region increases in energy intensity from a first intensity to a second intensity to an Mth intensity for M cycles of the laser beam propagating between the pair of mirror devices, where M is greater than 1,000 cycles;
- a fuel pellet or a container comprising the fuel pellet inside disposed within the reactor region and coupled to the cavity region to provide an energy level sufficient to ignite the fuel pellet for a fusion reaction;
- and
- a ratio of W/A of at least 2 up to 500 configured to reduce any damage to one of mirror devices by reducing the aperture size to a predetermined dimension to prevent the radiation of the fusion reaction generated at a center of reaction region to interact with the mirror device through the cavity region.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.