Keywords: Inertial confinement fusion.svg The stages of inertial confinement fusion Laser beams or laser-produced X-rays rapidly heat the surface of the fusion target forming a surrounding plasma envelope Fuel is compressed by the rocket-like blowoff of the hot surface material During the final part of the capsule implosion the fuel core reaches 20 times the density of lead and ignites at 100 000 000 ˚C Thermonuclear burn spreads rapidly through the compressed fuel yielding many times the input energy The blue arrows represent radiation; orange is blowoff; purple is inwardly transported thermal energy Originally uploaded to the English Wikipedia as en Image Inertial confinement fusion jpg by en User Deglr6328; marked as a work of the U S government and therefore as a public domain image This version created by bdesham with Inkscape Inertial confinement fusion |