How NIF Works

The National Ignition Facility, located at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, is the world's largest laser system... 192 huge laser beams in a massive building, all focused down at the last moment at a 2 millimeter ball containing frozen hydrogen gas. The goal is to achieve fusion... getting more energy out than was used to create it. It's never been done before under controlled conditions, just in nuclear weapons and in stars. We expect to do it within the next 2-3 years. The purpose is threefold: to create an almost limitless supply of safe, carbon-free, proliferation-free electricity; examine new regimes of astrophysics as well as basic science; and study the inner-workings of the U.S. stockpile of nuclear weapons to ensure they remain safe, secure and reliable without the need for underground testing. More information about NIF can be found at: https://lasers.llnl.gov

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• nif
• lawrence livermore
• llnl
• ignition
• fusion
• laser
• energy

[RoberTastic]

hi how are the beams bounced back and forth through the amplifiers? Are they simply mirrors? Also is the final exit exit from the power amplifier a mechanical process, like shutters opening?

[LivermoreLab]

@RoberTastic NIF uses an optical switch called a plasma electrode Pockels cell (PEPC). Developed at LLNL, a Pockels cell rotates the polarization of a beam when voltage is applied across an electro-optic crystal. Depending on the voltage, the Pockels cell either allows light to pass through or to reflect off a polarizer, creating an optical switch. In the NIF beamline, the PEPC allows the laser pulse to make four passes through the main amplifier, building up its energy with each pass.

[EuroSon99]

The Laser Megajoule laser Fusion facility in Europe is exactly as large as the NIF operating on the same energy level and build for the same research goals. This video conveniently forgot to mention that fact.

[LivermoreLab]

@EuroSon99 LMJ is scheduled to begin experiments in the middle of the next decade. NIF is running experiments now. There are other differences as well, including the number of beamlines and layout.

[EuroSon99]

Sorry but to be fair the LMJ is expected to be ready in 2012 followed by experiments. That`s 2 years from now. Also both NIF and LMJ will be Mostly used for military nuclear research. This video blurs this with a quick "global security" while giving a constant impression of a pursuit for commercial energy as the number 1 goal. Besides the issue of laser fusion is still far behind Tokamak research. Firing a laser every few hours instead of 10 times per second is a 100.000 + gap. Just my 2 cents.

[LivermoreLab]

@EuroSon99 According to the LMJ website:

"Les premières expériences sont prévues au milieu de la prochaine décennie. The first experiments are scheduled in the middle of next decade."

[LivermoreLab]

@fermi2

Numerous safety systems have been incorporated into NIF to assure that all experiments can be safely carried out. The small size of the fusion target, and the fact that the fuel is expended in just a few trillionths of a second, insures against a runaway chain reaction or "meltdown". While the neutrons, X-rays and gamma rays generated in a shot can be harmful if not properly controlled, two-meter-thick concrete walls and doors encase the target bay in a protective shield.

[samann95014]

why use such complicated technology when cold fusion can provide the same energy with simple procedures? cold fusion is not junk science anymore. google search 'rossi cold fusion'.

[talibanking]

They should put this laser in an orbital station and use it for defense like the hammer of dawn lol

[B0ombastix]

Wow

[Aspartame0]

@SuperVerdone Fusion reactions are completely safe. In order to maintain a fusion reaction, all of the different parameters that contain the reaction are finely tuned to keep the reaction perpetual. If one of these variables change - the reaction stops immediately and nothing else happens. Fission is much more dangerous than than fusion and we're using nuclear fission in reactors today.

[gomer1021]

popular science sent me

[onewhopwns]

This stuff sounds awesome but,is this safe?Is it safer than nuclear powerstations?I mean,making a mini-star in a lab is serious stuff.

[Seiku]

@SuperVerdone People said the same thing about the Hadron Collider. People shouldn't spread fear if they don't understand it.

[benner2000]

@LivermoreLab If fusion is achieved, what plans are being made to capture this burst of energy?

[EquinoxParadox91]

How exactly does the conversion from infrared to ultraviolet light occur?

[Prometheus1st]

@EuroSon99 Many, many people have said that the NIF was unsuitable for any such application of maintaining our nuclear arsenal, or of providing data useful for testing new designs for nuclear weapons. The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) makes it very difficult for ANY program to directly or indirectly provide useful data that could possibly be used to benefit such research.

HOWEVER, whispering that the NIF COULD be used for it secured funding that would have otherwise been denied for it.