This paper provides a retrospective of the ALPHA (Accelerating Low-cost Plasma Heating and Assembly) fusion program of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) of the U.S. Department of Energy. ALPHA's objective was to catalyze research and development efforts to enable substantially lower-cost pathways to economical fusion power. To do this in a targeted, focused program, ALPHA focused on advancing the science and technology of pulsed, intermediate-density fusion approaches, including magneto-inertial fusion and Z-pinch variants, that have the potential to scale to commercially viable fusion power plants. The paper includes a discussion of the origins and framing of the ALPHA program, a summary of project status and outcomes, a description of associated technology-transition activities, and thoughts on a potential follow-on ARPA-E fusion program.

中文翻译：

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ARPA-E ALPHA Fusion 项目回顾

本文回顾了美国能源部能源高级研究计划署 (ARPA-E) 的 ALPHA（加速低成本等离子体加热和组装）聚变计划。ALPHA 的目标是促进研究和开发工作，以实现成本大幅降低的经济聚变动力途径。为了在一个有针对性的、重点突出的项目中做到这一点，ALPHA 专注于推进脉冲、中等密度聚变方法的科学和技术，包括磁惯性聚变和 Z-pinch 变体，这些方法有可能扩展到商业上可行的聚变发电厂. 该文件包括对 ALPHA 计划的起源和框架的讨论、项目状态和结果的摘要、相关技术转型活动的描述、