Scaling Validation of Polar Direct Drive Capsule Implosions Using xRage

Direct drive target designs provide the greatest opportunity for the types of symmetric, directionally independent targets that are favorable for future inertial fusion energy (IFE) systems. These symmetric target designs, combined with the polar direct drive (PDD) approach, reduce plant complexity, making a more robust power plant design. Due to this, Los Alamos National Laboratory is using the radiation hydrodynamics code xRage to design IFE targets for the polar direct drive configuration. The most promising IFE target designs are too large to be fielded on current laser facilities, requiring the ability to scale the designs in size. Using xRage, we are modeling PDD capsule implosions at Omega and National Ignition Facility (NIF) scales to ground our modeling choices with data and build a basis to make the same scaling in size from NIF up to our IFE capsule designs. This talk presents results from modeling a common suite of experiments used to build credibility into our IFE target designs, as well as gaps in capabilities.