High-Energy-Density Science on the National Ignition Facility

C. Bruce Tarter

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

L-001, P. O. Box 808

Livermore, California 94551-0808, U.S.A.

Inertial fusion and high-energy density researchers world-wide are planning experiments on a number of new facilities that can reach unprecedented temperatures, pressures, and densities. These facilities include pulsed power Z-pinch machines, large multi-beam laser systems, and high-power, short-pulse laser systems. In the United States, the National Ignition Facility (NIF), currently under construction at the University of California’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has completed the activation and commissioning of its first four laser beams. NIF is a $2.25B football stadium-sized laser and experimental facility that when completed in 2008 will contain a 192-beam, 1.8-Megajoule, 500-Terawatt, 351-nm laser system. With the completion of the first four beam, NIF has already established itself as the world’s most energetic laser system and has demonstrated key laser system performance requirements. The first physics experiments have already been fielded on NIF studying laser-plasma interactions and hydrodynamics. Other experiments are planned to study materials equation of state and strength. After NIF is completed it will provide a national center for researchers to study inertial confinement fusion and the physics of extreme energy densities and pressures.

Fusion ignition research on NIF will use up to 192 energetic laser beams to compress small fusion targets to conditions where they will ignite and burn, liberating more energy than is required to initiate the fusion reactions. NIF experiments will allow the study of physical processes at temperatures approaching 100 million K and 100 billion times atmospheric pressure. These conditions exist naturally only in the interior of stars and in nuclear weapons explosions.

This presentation will discuss the NIF laser system including enhancements to NIF’s capabilities to provide picosecond laser pulses for high-energy x-ray radiography and ultimately for fast ignition studies. First results from experiments on NIF will be presented along with plans for additional diagnostics and experimental platforms.

NIF is being built by the University of California, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Agency under contract W-7405-Eng-48.