Harkening back to the genesis of LLNL’s inertial confinement fusion (ICF) program, codes have played an essential role in simulating the complex physical processes that take place in an ICF target and the facets of each experiment that must be nearly perfect.

Diagnostics — specialized, state-of-the-art measuring instruments — played an essential role in LLNL's Dec. 5, 2022, fusion ignition milestone. The Target Area Science and Engineering team has developed a comprehensive suite of 140 optical, X-ray and nuclear diagnostics that help measure the performance of every NIF shot.

The intricate, delicate targets used in Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) experiments are marvels of design, engineering and precise manufacturing. For NIF to consistently match and ultimately exceed December’s milestone ignition shot, an even higher level of perfection — or even a different capsule material — may be needed.

Having blazed the path to fusion ignition at the National Ignition Facility (NIF), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers and their collaborators are now making plans for sustained, and even higher, nuclear yields to enable and expand applications for stockpile stewardship and basic science research.

For hundreds of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists on the design, experimental, and modeling and simulation teams behind inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiments at the National Ignition Facility (NIF), the results of the now-famous Dec. 5, 2022, ignition shot didn’t come as a complete surprise.