National Ignition Facility; Bringing Star Power to Earth, LLNL-AR-412551
Charlie Arteago, Jr. (Print Coordinator) Livermore, CA: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 2009. Presumed First Edition, First printing thus. Trade paperback. Format is approximately 8.5 inches by 8.5 inches. 127, [1] pages plus covers. Illustrated front and back covers. Profusely illustrated (most in color). This document was intended to introduce the National Ignition Facility, as it became close to operational, to the broader community. Contents include: In the Beginning, Laser Systems, Construction Site, Laser Bays, Switchyards, Target Bay, Main Laser System, Final Optics, Targets, Experiments, and Missions. Since 2013, NIF has focused on materials and weapons research. Experiments beginning in 2015 FY have used plutonium targets, with a schedule containing 10 to 12 shots for 2015, and as many as 120 over the next 10 years. Plutonium shots simulate the compression of the primary in a nuclear bomb by high explosives, which has not seen direct testing since the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. Tiny amounts of plutonium are used in these tests, ranging from less than a milligram to 10 milligrams. The then director of LLNL's Primary Nuclear Design Program, Mike Dunning, noted that "This is an opportunity for us to get high-quality data using a regime that was previously unavailable to us" The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is a large laser-based inertial confinement fusion (ICF) research device, located at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California. NIF uses lasers to heat and compress a small amount of hydrogen fuel with the goal of inducing nuclear fusion reactions. NIF's mission is to achieve fusion ignition with high energy gain, and to support nuclear weapon maintenance and design by studying the behavior of matter under the conditions found within nuclear weapons. NIF is the largest and most energetic ICF device built to date, and the largest laser in the world. The basic concept of all ICF devices is to rapidly collapse a small amount of fuel so the pressure and temperature reach fusion-relevant conditions. NIF does this by heating the outer layer of a small plastic sphere with the world's most energetic laser. The energy from the laser is so intense that it causes the plastic to implode, squeezing down on the fuel inside. The speed of this process is enormous, with the fuel reaching a peak around 350 km/s, raising the density from about that of water to about 100 times that of lead. The delivery of energy and the adiabatic process during collapse raises the temperature of the fuel to hundreds of millions of degrees. At these temperatures, fusion processes occur very rapidly, before the energy generated in the fuel causes it to explode outward as well. Construction on the NIF began in 1997 but management problems and technical delays slowed progress into the early 2000s. Progress after 2000 was smoother, but compared to initial estimates, NIF was completed five years behind schedule and was almost four times more expensive than originally budgeted. Construction was certified complete on 31 March 2009 by the U.S. Department of Energy, and a dedication ceremony took place on 29 May 2009. The first large-scale laser target experiments were performed in June 2009 and the first "integrated ignition experiments" (which tested the laser's power) were declared completed in October 2010. Bringing the system to its full potential was a lengthy process that was carried out from 2009 to 2012. During this period a number of experiments were worked into the process under the National Ignition Campaign, with the goal of reaching ignition just after the laser reached full power, some time in the second half of 2012. The Campaign officially ended in September 2012, at about 1 10 the conditions needed for ignition. Since 2012, NIF has been used primarily for materials science and weapons research. In 2021, after many years of research in fuel target design, NIF produced 70% of the energy of the laser, beating the record set in 1997 by the JET reactor at 67% and achieved a burning plasma. Condition: Very good.
Keywords: National Ignition Facility, NIF, Laser Fusion, Stockpile Stewardship, Plutonium Experiments, Nuclear Weapons Research, High Energy Density Physics, Inertial Confinement Fusion, ICF
[Book #84092]
Price: $65.00