Large power stations generate an electrical power of about 1.5 GW1.5\text{ GW}1.5 GW. Current methods of energy production that use nuclear fusion are unable to produce enough energy for large-scale energy production. A proposed method of controlling nuclear fusion is inertial confinement fusion (ICF). ICF uses a large number of powerful lasers to create the high temperatures required for nuclear fusion to occur.
One ICF experiment uses a network of capacitors to store the energy needed to power the lasers. When the network is fully charged:
Calculate the total capacitance, CCC, of the network.
Explain why the individual capacitors in the network should be connected in parallel in order to produce this total capacitance.
The total stored energy must be released in a time of less than 0.8 ms0.8\text{ ms}0.8 ms.
Explain, using a calculation, why the lasers are powered by the network of capacitors instead of being connected directly to a 1.5 GW1.5\text{ GW}1.5 GW power station.
The fusion reaction in this ICF experiment is:
deuterium+helium-3→helium-4+proton \text{deuterium} + \text{helium-3} \rightarrow \text{helium-4} + \text{proton} deuterium+helium-3→helium-4+protonCalculate the number of fusion reactions that must occur for the energy released by fusion to be equal to the electrical energy stored in the network of capacitors.
