Progress in inertial fusion research

Progress in inertial fusion research in the last 30 years has been briefly described. As Edward Teller said, the ICF research has turned around the third corner to approach the homestretch for the scientific feasibility. Fusion will be the world's ultimate energy source, inexhaustible fuel, worldwide availability, environmental benign and high safety potential, if it can be harnessed economically. Fusion must respond to compete in the marketplace of the 21st century. In this sense, we should have a long prospect of research and development. The concept of ICF has a strong importance for the fusion energy. The laser fusion has made a great progress in the last 30 years. On the other hand, there has been an active international collaboration to develop the magnetic confinement fusion power research. This kind of action was not observed in the ICF society. Recent inertial fusion experiments on the direct driven fusion at Osaka have successfully got the high fusion neutron yield 10(13) and the high density compression of 1000 times normal fuel density. The electron degeneracy of core plasma is also observed. The U.S. Halite / Centurion program informed us of indirect driven fusion which will be attainable the high gain for less than the 10MJ of driver. However, the data base is not yet clear to determine the details for high gain. This question can only be solved by using a large laser facility. The U.S. policy on indirect driven fusion program has come to provide the National Ignition Facility with the declassificaton of the experimental data. Experimental and theoretical progress in ICF in the international community has suggested that the time has come to eliminate unnecessary restrictions on information relevant to the energy applications ICF. Now ICF is in the second stage of the development. The ignition and breakeven are in a scope of the program. The international collaboration will be initiated. Now, to show the importance of the international collaboration, the world progress of inertial fusion is briefly reviewed setting particular remarks on the Japanese efforts.