National Ignition Facility PDF Download

The National Ignition Facility (NIF), the world's largest and most powerful laser system for inertial confinement fusion (ICF) and experiments studying high-energy-density (HED) science, is now operational at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). The NIF construction Project was certified by the Department of Energy as complete on March 30, 2009. NIF, a 192-beam Nd-glass laser facility, will produce 1.8 MJ, 500 TW of light at the third-harmonic, ultraviolet light of 351 nm. On March 10, 2009, a total 192-beam energy of 1.1 MJ was demonstrated; this is approximately 30 times more energy than ever produced in an ICF laser system. The principal goal of NIF is to achieve ignition of a deuterium-tritium (DT) fuel capsule and provide access to HED physics regimes needed for experiments related to national security, fusion energy and for broader frontier scientific exploration. NIF experiments in support of indirect drive ignition will begin in FY2009. These first experiments represent the next phase of the National Ignition Campaign (NIC). The NIC is a 1.7 billion dollar national effort to achieve fusion ignition and is coordinated through a detailed execution plan that includes the science, technology, and equipment. Equipment required for ignition experiments include diagnostics, cryogenic target manipulator, and user optics. Participants in this effort include LLNL, General Atomics (GA), Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Sandia National Laboratory (SNL), and the University of Rochester Laboratory for Energetics (LLE). The primary goal for NIC is to have all of the equipment operational and integrated into the facility and be ready to begin a credible ignition campaign in 2010. With NIF now operational, the long-sought goal of achieving self-sustained nuclear fusion and energy gain in the laboratory is much closer to realization. Successful demonstration of ignition and net energy gain on NIF will be a major step towards demonstrating the feasibility of Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) and will likely focus the world's attention on the possibility of an ICF energy option. NIF experiments to demonstrate ignition and gain will use central-hot-spot (CHS) ignition, where a spherical fuel capsule is simultaneously compressed and ignited. The scientific basis for CHS has been intensively developed and has high probability of success. Achieving ignition with CHS will open the door for other advanced concepts, such as the use of high-yield pulses of visible wavelength rather than ultraviolet and Fast Ignition concepts. Moreover, NIF will have important scientific applications in such diverse fields as astrophysics, nuclear physics and materials science. The NIC will develop the full set of capabilities required to operate NIF as a major national and international user facility. A solicitation for NIF frontier science experiments to be conducted by the academic community is planned for summer 2009. This paper summarizes the design, performance, and status of NIF, experimental plans for NIC, and will present a brief discussion of the unparalleled opportunities to explore frontier basic science that will be available on the NIF.