Advancing Inertial Fusion Energy research within LLNL and the national ecosystem

The National Ignition Facility has achieved ignition over nine times since December 2022. This repeated success emphasizes the potential of Inertial Fusion Energy. However, IFE still needs significant advances to become viable and requires, similarly to the achievement of ignition, building a significant network of contributors in research areas ranging from target design to materials science and systems engineering of a power plant. Therefore, partnerships between national laboratories, universities, the private sector, and multiple U.S. government agencies is critical to build the desired ecosystem and accelerate IFE science and technology. In this work we describe the work conducted under the IFE-Science and Technology Accelerated Research (IFE-STAR) hub, Science and Technology Accelerated Research for Fusion Innovation and Reactor Engineering (STARFIRE). We will cover several key technical areas for IFE such as laser technology, high-gain target design and target fabrication. We will present highlights from this past year obtained with additive manufacturing techniques used for foam-target printing, studies of possible IFE target design limitations, diode pumped solid state lasers architecture, system plant design tools and recent outreach efforts. Finally, we will describe how the STARFIRE hub fits within the larger national ecosystem for IFE research.