San Diego, California, 17-19 June 2002

Inertial Fusion Energy Experiments on the National Ignition Facility

Mike Tobin, David Eder, Alice Koniges, Brian MacGowan

tobin2llnl.gov

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory,

L-472, P.O. Box 808, Livermore, CA 94551

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) will first deliver laser light to chamber center in the middle of 2003. During the following six years, the additional beams and NIF target development will support an ever-increasing capability of energy on target, use of tritium, and eventually yield experiments. When complete the facility will have 192 beams capable of delivering 1.8 MJ of light and generating target yields as large as 20 MJ.

The NIF Experimental Plan is currently under review and proposals for NIF experiments supporting High Energy Density Physics and ICF Ignition Physics are being developed. Another intended use of NIF is to support experiments that investigate key Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) issues.

This talk will describe the opportunities to conduct IFE-related experiments on NIF from four perspectives: beam energy/diagnostic availability/target performance, guidance to minimize impacts to debris shield lifetimes, possible environmental and safety constraints, and opportunities to collect IFE relevant data from experiments conducted for High Energy Density Physics or Ignition Campaign goals. Part of the talk will be a short ‘walk-through’ of the facility, highlighting the construction milestones achieved in the last year. The information contained in this talk is intended to help facilitate and encourage the IFE research community to develop proposals to utilize NIF at the earliest stage where beneficial data is available. An early IFE presence on NIF will aid in learning how to use this facility, aid in developing new experimental techniques, and ensure readiness to extract the full benefit of NIF environments as laser energy and eventually yields reach a more and more relevant parameter space.