National Ignition Facility monthly status report--April 2000

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is a leading research laboratory in material properties. The most notable facility at LLNL capable of determining equation of state data for hazardous materials is the National Ignition Facility (NIF). NIF is the most energetic laser in the world and is a very versatile system that allows for a variety of laser configurations and diagnostics. The flexibility that NIF offers makes it an attractive tool for high budget programs researching specific areas of interest. Some programs require many tests to be performed, and although NIF could be an option for performing these tests, the cost and time to perform the tests would not be feasible. Also, many of these tests would underutilize the full capacity of NIF’s lasers, and NIF does not have a dedicated light source suitable for the diagnostic requirement. The needs of these tests do not align with NIF’s capabilities. The physicists are the main stakeholders for the tests, and they require a third-generation light source to meet the desired diagnostic performance. The Dynamic Compression Sector (DCS) within the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) is the facility that will meet necessary laser performance and the X-ray diagnostic performance in order to obtain the desired data. DCS does not have the capability to test hazardous material, and therefore DCS requires a method and hardware for ensuring that no hazardous material is exposed before, during, or after the test. After taking a system engineering evaluation of the need for a solution to perform laser shock experiments on hazardous materials with certain laser and X-ray characteristics, a solution is proposed that meets the requirements of each involved stakeholder. The proposed solution is to contain the targets within sealed vacuum chamber that will meet the protection requirements of each facility. The chamber would be assembled and pumped down at LLNL in facilities that can handle hazardous material. Then, the chamber would be shipped under vacuum to DCS, where the chamber will be inserted into the beam paths. DCS’s laser will enter the sealed chamber and impart a shock into the target of hazardous material while the X-ray will simultaneously image the material. Once each target has been fired, the chamber will be removed from the beam path and shipped to the proper disposal facility.

Approximately 4000 capacitors, each storing 83.5 kJ of energy, will be required for the United States Department of Energy National Ignition Facility (NIF), being built at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). To achieve the required system reliability lifetime, and cost goals, the capacitors were specified to be of the self-healing, metallized electrode type of construction. Maxwell Energy Products has previously delivered a number of banks of self-healing capacitors, including the 52 MJ bank at the US Army ARDEC facility at Picatinny Arsenal, NJ. Development of capacitors specifically for NIF began several years ago and continues today at Maxwell, with the primary goal of reducing the manufacturing cost. In support of this effort, LLNL has procured prototypes and life tested a number of our designs over the past three years. This paper reviews the development of NIF capacitors at Maxwell, focussing on the lifetime performance of different designs during the development. This work has resulted in Maxwell Type CM capacitor designs, whose demonstrated lifetime capability has far exceeded the 20000 shot NIF requirement, having energy densities as high as 0.84 J/cc.

The National Ignition Facility (NIF), currently under construction at the University of California s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is a stadium-sized facility containing a 192-beam, 1.8 Megajoule, 500-Terrawatt, 351-nm laser system together with a 10-meter diameter target chamber with room for nearly 100 experimental diagnostics. NIF is being built by the National Nuclear Security Administration and when completed will be the world s largest laser experimental system, providing a national center to study inertial confinement fusion and the physics of matter at extreme energy densities and pressures. NIF s 192 energetic laser beams will compress fusion targets to conditions where they will ignite and burn, liberating more energy than required to initiate the fusion reaction. The first four beamlines (a quad) are currently being commissioned, with increasingly energetic laser pulses being propagated throughout the laser system. Success on many of the NIF laser s missions depends on obtaining precisely specified energy waveforms from each of the 192 beams over a wide variety of pulse lengths and temporal shapes. A computational system, the Laser Performance Operations Model (LPOM) has been developed and deployed during NIF commissioning to automate the laser setup process, and accurately predict laser energtics. For each shot on NIF, the LPOM determines the characteristics of the injection laser system required to achieve the desired main laser output, provides parameter checking for equipment protection, determines the required diagnostic setup, and supplies post-shot data analysis and reporting.

On behalf of all at High Power Laser Science and Engineering we would like to congratulate the team at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) on demonstrating fusion ignition at the National Ignition Facility. This major scientific achievement was realized on the 5 December 2022 at the LLNL and announced at a press briefing on the 13 December 2022 by the United States Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration. This was a historic milestone and the culmination of decades of effort.

The Department of Energy (DOE) proposes to construct and operate the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in support of the Stockpile Stewardship and Management (SSM) Programmatic Environmental impact Statement (PEIS). The National Environmental Policy Act requires the DOE to look at alternative sites for the NIF. The SSM PEIS will evaluate four alternative locations for the NIF. This study documents the process and results of a site selection study for a preferred site for the NIF at SNL/NM. The NIF research objectives are to provide the world`s most powerful laser systems to be used in ignition of fusion fuel and energy gain to perform high energy density and radiation effects experiments in support of the DOE`s national security, energy, and basic science research mission. The most immediate application of the NIF will be to provide nuclear-weapon-related physics data, since many phenomena occurring on the laboratory scale are similar to those that occur in weapons. The NIF may also provide an important capability for weapons effects simulation. The NIF is designed to achieve propagating fusion bum and modest energy gain for development as a source of civilian energy.

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) Nuclear Forensics Summer Program is designed to give both undergraduate and graduate students an opportunity to come to LLNL for 8–10 weeks for a hands-on research experience. Students conduct research under the supervision of a staff scientist, attend a weekly lecture series, interact with other students, and present their work in poster format at the end of the program. Students also have the opportunity to meet staff scientists one-on-one, participate in LLNL facility tours (e.g., the National Ignition Facility and Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry) to gain a better understanding of the multi-disciplinary, on going science at LLNL. Currently called the Nuclear Forensics Summer Program, this program began 13 years ago as the Actinide Sciences Summer Program. The program is run within the Glenn T. Seaborg Institute in the Physical and Life Sciences Directorate at LLNL. The goal of the Nuclear Forensics Summer Program is to facilitate the training of the next generation of nuclear scientists and engineers to solve critical national security problems in the field of nuclear forensics and have the student experience conducting research at the Lab. We select students who are majoring in physics, chemistry, geology, mathematics, nuclear engineering, chemical engineering and environmental sciences. Students engage in research projects in the disciplines of actinide chemistry, radiochemistry, isotopic analysis, computational analysis, radiation detection, and nuclear engineering in order to strengthen the “pipeline” for future scientific disciplines critical to DHS (DNDO), NNSA.

Quality achievement is the responsibility of the line organizations of the National Ignition Facility (NIF) Project. This subtier Quality Assurance Plan (QAP) applies to activities of the Laser Materials & Optical Technology (LM&OT) organization and its subcontractors. It responds to the NIF Quality Assurance Program Plan (QAPP, L-15958-2, NIF-95-499) and Department of Energy (DOE) Order 5700.6C. This Plan is organized according to 10 Quality Assurance (QA) criteria and subelements of a management system as outlined in the NIF QAPP. This Plan describes how those QA requirements are met. This Plan is authorized by the Associate Project Leader for the LM&OT organization, who has assigned responsibility to the Optics QA engineer to maintain this plan, with the assistance of the NIF QA organization. This Plan governs quality-affecting activities associated with: design; procurement; fabrication; testing and acceptance; handling and storage; and installation of NIF Project optical components into mounts and subassemblies.

This document is the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) National Ignition Facility (NIF) Pollution Prevention and Waste Minimization Plan. It will not only function as the planning document for anticipating, minimizing, and mitigating NIF waste generation, but it is also a Department of Energy (DOE) milestone document specified in the facility's Mitigation Action Plan (MAP). As such, it is one of the ''living'' reference documents that will guide NIF operations through all phases of the project. This document will be updated periodically to reflect development of the NIF, from construction through lifetime operations.

Fiscal year 1996 has been a year of significant change for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in general and for Engineering in particular. Among these changes, the Laboratory`s national security mission was better defined, the stockpile stewardship program objectives became crisper, LLNL`s investment in high-performance computing was re-emphasized with the procurement of a $100 million supercomputer for the Laboratory`s Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI) program, two major Laser programs (the National Ignition Facility and Atomic Vapor Laser Isotope Separation) expanded significantly, and DOE`s human genome efforts moved to the next phase of development. In the area of business operations, LLNL`s Cost Cutting Initiative Program (CCIP) was completed and the Laboratory restructured its workforce using a Voluntary Separation Incentive Program (VSIP). Engineering similarly also saw many technical and programmatic successes, as well as changes, starting with completion of its strategic plan, significant consolidation of its facilities, restructuring of its workforce, reduction of its overhead costs, substantial transfers of staff between programs, and finally my personal arrival at Livermore. This report is the first opportunity to capture some of Engineering`s FY96 activities and accomplishments in a succinct fashion, and to relate these to our strategic plan.

General design and experiment for separated final optics assembly on high energy laser system

The Static X-Ray Imager (SXI) is a National Ignition Facility (NIF) diagnostic that uses a CCDcamera to record timeintegrated X-ray images of target features such as the laser entrance hole of hohlraums. SXI has two dedicated positioners on the NIF target chamber for viewing thetarget from above and below, and the X-ray energies of interest are 870 eV for the “soft” channel and 3 – 5 keV for the “hard” channels. The original cameras utilize a large formatbackilluminated 2048 x 2048 CCD sensor with 24 micron pixels. Since the original sensor isno longer available, an effort was recently undertaken to build replacement cameras withsuitable new sensors. Three of the new cameras use a commercially available front-illuminatedCCD of similar size to the original, which has adequate sensitivity for the hard X-ray channelsbut not for the soft. For sensitivity below 1 keV, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) had additional CCDs back-thinned andconverted to back-illumination for use in the other two new cameras. In this paper we describethe characteristics of the new cameras and present performance data (quantum efficiency, flat field, and dynamic range) for the front- and back-illuminated cameras, with comparisons to the originalcameras.

The Saturn pulsed power accelerator [R. B. Spielman et al., in Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Dense Z-pinches, Laguna Beach, CA, 1989, edited by N. R. Pereira, J. Davis, and N. Rostoker (American Institute of Physics, New York, 1989), p. 3] at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) and the Nova laser [J. T. Hunt and D. R. Speck, Opt. Eng. 28, 461 (1989)] at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have been used to explore techniques for studying the behavior of ablator material in x-ray radiation environments comparable in magnitude, spectrum, and duration to those that would be experienced in National Ignition Facility (NIF) hohlraums [J. D. Lindl, Phys. Plasmas 2, 3933 (1995)]. The large x-ray outputs available from the Saturn pulsed-power-driven z pinch have enabled us to drive hohlraums of full NIF ignition scale size at radiation temperatures and time scales comparable to those required for the low-power foot pulse of an ignition capsule. The high-intensity drives available in the Nova laser have allowed us to study capsule ablator physics in smaller-scale hohlraums at radiation temperatures and time scales relevant to the peak power pulse for an ignition capsule. Taken together, these experiments have pointed the way to possible techniques for testing radiation-hydrodynamics code predictions of radiation flow, opacity, equation of state, and ablator shock velocity over the range of radiation environments that will be encountered in a NIF hohlraum.

The object of inertial confinement fusion (ICF) is to compress a fuel capsule to a state with high enough density and temperature to ignite, starting a self-sustaining fusion burn that consumes much of the fuel and releases a large amount of energy. The national ICF research program is trying to reach this goal, especially through experiments at the OMEGA laser facility of the University of Rochester Laboratory of Laser Energetics (LLE), planned experiments at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) under construction at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), and experimental and theoretical work at other national laboratories. The work by MIT reported here has played several important roles in this national program. First, the development of new and improved charged-particle-based plasma diagnostics has allowed the gathering of new and unique diagnostic information about the implosions of fuel capsules in ICF experiments, providing new means for evaluating experiments and for studying capsule implosion dynamics. Proton spectrometers have become the standard for evaluating the mass assembly in compressed capsules in experiments at OMEGA; the measured energy downshift of either primary or secondary D3He fusion protons to determines the areal density, or ?R, of imploded capsules. The Proton Temporal Diagnostic measures the time history of fusion burn, and multiple proton emission imaging cameras reveal the 3-D spatial distribution of fusion burn. A new compact neutron spectrometer, for measuring fusion yield, is described here for the first time. And of especially high importance to future work is the Magnetic Recoil Spectrometer (MRS), which is a neutron spectrometer that will be used to study a range of important performance parameters in future experiments at the NIF. A prototype is currently being prepared for testing at OMEGA, using a magnet funded by this grant. Second, MIT has used these diagnostic instruments to perform its own physics experiments and analysis with implosions at OMEGA, to provide essential data to other experimenters at LLE, and to work collaboratively with researchers from all the national laboratories (including LLNL, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratory). Some of the implosion dynamics physics studies reported here involve the relationships between drive asymmetries and implosion asymmetries (in terms of both mass assembly and fusion burn); the time evolution of mass assembly and mass asymmetries; the behavior of shock coalescence; and the nature of fuel-shell mix. Third, the MIT program has provided unique educational and research opportunities for both graduate and undergraduate students. The graduate students are deeply engaged in every aspect of our research program, and spend considerable time at OMEGA working on experiments and working with our collaborators from OMEGA and from the National Labs. Many undergraduates have gotten a taste of ICF research, sometimes making significant contributions. We believe that the introduction of energetic and gifted students to the challenging problems of this field and the excitement of the national lab environment leads naturally to the infusion of bright, talented young scientists into our field, and several PhD recipients from this group have become important forces in the field. Finally, this work has provided the foundation for continuing advances during upcoming research, with other experimental and theoretical studies of implosion dynamics. In addition to the continuing application of diagnostic instrumentation used during this grant, important contributions will be made with new diagnostics such as the MRS and with new techniques based on the knowledge obtained here, such as proton radiography.

The response of triple junction InGaP <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> /GaAs/Ge, solar cells to a simulated nuclear weapons threat environment is being analyzed and tested. A series of experiments exposing solar cells to a pulse x-ray source were conducted at the newly opened National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the OMEGA Laser facility at the University of Rochester. The test samples were 2-cm × 2-cm solar cells mounted on solar array substrates using materials and techniques identical to flight solar arrays. The cell structural response is characterized through visual inspections for exposure-induced cracking. The cell electrical response is characterized through current vs. voltage measurements made under simulated Air Mass Zero As a result of this project, a methodology will be established through which a comprehensive analysis of the weapons response of new solar cell technologies can be performed.

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) and Photon Science Directorate at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has substantial relevant experience in the construction of high energy lasers, and more recently in the development of advanced high average power solid state lasers. We are currently developing new concepts for advanced solid state laser drivers for the Laser Inertial Fusion Energy (LIFE) application, and other high average power laser applications that could become central technologies for use in space debris removal. The debris population most readily addressed by our laser technology is that of 0.1-10 cm sized debris in low earth orbit (LEO). In this application, a ground based laser system would engage an orbiting target and slow it down by ablating material from its surface which leads to reentry into the atmosphere, as proposed by NASA's ORION Project. The ORION concept of operations (CONOPS) is also described in general terms by Phipps. Key aspects of this approach include the need for high irradiance on target, 10{sup 8} to 10{sup 9} W/cm{sup 2}, which favors short (i.e., picoseconds to nanoseconds) laser pulse durations and high energy per pulse ({approx} > 10 kJ). Due to the target's orbital velocity, the potential duration of engagement is only of order 100 seconds, so a high pulse repetition rate is also essential. The laser technology needed for this application did not exist when ORION was first proposed, but today, a unique combination of emerging technologies could create a path to enable deployment in the near future. Our concepts for the laser system architecture are an extension of what was developed for the National Ignition Facility (NIF), combined with high repetition rate laser technology developed for Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE), and heat capacity laser technology developed for military applications. The 'front-end' seed pulse generator would be fiber-optics based, and would generate a temporally, and spectrally tailored pulse designed for high transmission through the atmosphere, as well as efficient ablative coupling to the target. The main amplifier would use either diode-pumped or flashlamp-pumped solid state gain media, depending on budget constraints of the project. A continuously operating system would use the gas-cooled amplifier technology developed for Mercury, while a burst-mode option would use the heat capacity laser technology. The ground-based system that we propose is capable of rapid engagement of targets whose orbits cross over the site, with potential for kill on a single pass. Very little target mass is ablated per pulse so the potential to create additional hazardous orbiting debris is minimal. Our cost estimates range from $2500 to $5000 per J depending on choices for laser gain medium, amplifier pump source, and thermal management method. A flashlamp-pumped, Nd:glass heat-capacity laser operating in the burst mode would have costs at the lower end of this spectrum and would suffice to demonstrate the efficacy of this approach as a prototype system. A diode-pumped, gas-cooled laser would have higher costs but could be operated continuously, and might be desirable for more demanding mission needs. Maneuverability can be incorporated in the system design if the additional cost is deemed acceptable. The laser system would need to be coupled with a target pointing and tracking telescope with guide-star-like wavefront correction capability.