Some preliminary views are presented to the topic “Fast High
Density Plasma Blocks Driven by Picosecond Terawatt Lasers” of the
UWS-International Workshop 1–4 December 2004 in Sydney, Australia,
underlining the motivation to explain the difference between the
relativistic and the subrelativistic effects of ps-laser pulse interaction
with plasma at powers above TW. This refers to specifically selected
experimental and theoretical presentations at the workshop containing
results for explaining the differences but also the important applications
for studies on the fast ignitor scheme for application on nuclear fusion
energy. One of the aims with relativistic proton beams is to realize
conditions of spark ignition, while the subrelativistic case implies the
generation of fast plasma blocks eventually with the possibility to ignite
a fusion flame in uncompressed solid DT fuel for a power station with high
efficiency.