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National Ignition Facility and Photon Science
Lab researchers achieve record pressure for solid iron
Iron is the most abundant element in Earth's core and the sixth most abundant element in the universe. As a key component of terrestrial planets and exoplanets, iron has been one of the most studied materials under extreme conditions.In a series of campaigns led by the Lab's Yuan Ping using the OMEGA laser at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) at the University of…
D2T3 to join the ranks at National Ignition Facility
A new employee will soon be added to the roster of those working on Level 2 of the National Ignition Facility's (NIF) Target Bay. His name is D2T3, and his duties will be a bit different than his colleagues'.D2T3 -- named for the hydrogen isotopes that serve as fuel for NIF's fusion targets -- is a radiation-detecting, remote controlled robot. Currently in testing and…
'Route 66 to the Atomic West' class visits the Lab
It's the road trip of a lifetime. One professor and 19 students traveling through 11 states in 27 days across the American West to develop an in-depth understanding of western Cold War, urban and cultural history."Route 66 to the Atomic West" is a class offered by the University of West Florida (UWF) in Pensacola, Fla. Taught by Patrick Moore, UWF public history program…
National Ignition Facility provides backdrop for "Star Trek: Into Darkness"
LIVERMORE, Calif. -- The makers of "Star Trek: Into Darkness" went boldly where few have gone before when they visited Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's National Ignition Facility (NIF), the world's largest and most energetic laser system. With the approval of the Department of Energy, this unique facility was utilized for the first time as a film set. The filming…
NIF transitions to international science facility; Jeff Atherton named NIF director
LIVERMORE, Calif. - L. Jeffrey (Jeff) Atherton has been named director of the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Director Parney Albright announced Monday.Effective May 1, Atherton will take on the role of director as NIF, the world's largest and most energetic laser, transitions to a user facility. Ed Moses will remain the…
Fiuza wins EPS Plasma Physics Ph.D. Research Award
Lawrence Fellow Frederico Fiuza is one of three recipients of this year's Ph.D. Research Award from the Plasma Physics Division of the European Physical Society (EPS). Fiuza will receive his award during the 40th EPS plasma physics conference, held in Helsinki, Finland, July 1-5. Fiuza received the award for the work on his doctoral thesis, " Multi-scale PIC Simulations of…
National Academies recommend high priority for work on Lawrence Livermore's National Ignition Facility
LIVERMORE, Calif. -- A report issued by the National Research Council highlights the significant impact of successful development of inertial fusion energy (IFE), and recommends priorities for future research in this area. As noted in this National Academies' report, "The potential benefits of inertial confinement fusion energy (abundant fuel, minimal greenhouse gas…
Lawrence Livermore research highlighted at AAAS annual meeting
LIVERMORE, Calif. -- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory will highlight its expertise in fusion energy and space exploration when the American Association for the Advancement of Science holds its annual meeting, Feb. 14-18 in Boston. This year's meeting spotlights the "unreasonable effectiveness" of the scientific enterprise in creating economic growth, solving societal…
Livermore experiments illuminate how order arises in the cosmos
LIVERMORE, Calif. -- One of the unsolved mysteries of contemporary science is how highly organized structures can emerge from the random motion of particles. This applies to many situations ranging from astrophysical objects that extend over millions of light years to the birth of life on Earth. The surprising discovery of self-organized electromagnetic fields in counter…
Paper explores new regimes in fast ignition
Nearly 20 years ago, a group of researchers at the Laboratory proposed a hole boring process that would serve as the original scheme for fast ignition. Today, LLNL researchers are pushing this research ahead into new regimes. When a laser beam is reflected from a mirror, a finite amount of momentum - carried by light - is transferred to the mirror so that the mirror is…
LLNL researchers receive nearly $2.75 million for high energy density projects
The Department of Energy's (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and Office of Science (SC) have awarded more than $14 million in research awards as part of the Joint Program in High Energy Density Laboratory Plasmas (HEDLP). Six LLNL researchers received nearly $2.75 million for their projects. "These awards demonstrate the strong and valuable partnership…
NIF diagnostics described at American Chemical Society meeting
Laboratory researchers gave presentations about the National Ignition Facility's diagnostic equipment in a symposium organized by LLNL's Dawn Shaughnessy at the American Chemical Society's Meeting on Materials for Health and Medicine Aug. 19-23. Carol Velsco and LLNL colleagues described the Radiochemical Analysis of Gaseous Samples (RAGS) apparatus for NIF nuclear…
Yu-hsin Chen receives APS outstanding doctoral thesis award
Yu-hsin Chen, an LLNL postdoc in the NIF & PS Directorate, has been selected to receive the 2012 Marshall N. Rosenbluth Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award by the American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics. The award, sponsored by General Atomics, was established to recognize "exceptional young scientists who have performed original thesis work of outstanding…
NIF team wins esteemed plasma physics award
A far-reaching discovery about laser-matter interaction with important implications for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) has led to the selection of a team of researchers named recipients of the 2012 John Dawson Award for Excellence in Plasma Physics Research. The award, established by the American Physical Society, will be presented to LLNL researchers Debbie Callahan…
National Ignition Facility makes history with record 500 terawatt shot
LIVERMORE, CA. - Fifteen years of work by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's National Ignition Facility (NIF) team paid off on July 5 with a historic record-breaking laser shot. The NIF laser system of 192 beams delivered more than 500 trillion watts (terawatts or TW) of peak power and 1.85 megajoules (MJ) of ultraviolet laser light to its target. Five hundred…
New accelerator to examine heavy-ion-beam approach to inertial fusion power
The Department of Energy's Heavy Ion Fusion Science Virtual National Laboratory (HIFS-VNL), whose member institutions include LLNL, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, has recently completed a new accelerator designed to study an alternate approach to inertial fusion energy. Housed at LBNL, NDCX-II is a compact machine…
Optical Society of America names Seppala senior member
Lynn Seppala has been named a senior member of the Optical Society of America (OSA), an international society for optics and photonics scientists, engineers, educators and business leaders. Senior membership status recognizes members with more than 10 years of significant experience and professional accomplishments or service in their fields. Seppala, a senior optical…
Lab featured on NOVA's 'Hunting the Elements'
The Laboratory was recently featured on NOVA's "Hunting the Elements," a two-hour special from the producers of the "Making Stuff" series hosted by David Pogue, technology correspondent of The New York Times . Pogue spins viewers through the world of weird, extreme chemistry: the strongest acids, the deadliest poisons, the universe's most abundant elements, and the rarest…
LLNL highlighted in upcoming television lineup
An 8-10-minute segment about NIF and the progress toward ignition is scheduled to air on "CBS Sunday Morning" Sunday, April 1; the program begins at 6 a.m. Pacific time. New York Times technology columnist and CBS News contributor David Pogue and a CBS camera crew visited NIF on March 8 to prepare the segment. Pogue interviewed NIF Director Ed Moses and the crew did…
Lawrence Livermore's National Ignition Facility achieves record laser energy in pursuit of fusion ignition
LIVERMORE, Calif. -- The National Ignition Facility (NIF), the world's most energetic laser, surpassed a critical milestone in its efforts to meet one of modern science's greatest challenges: achieving fusion ignition and energy gain in a laboratory setting. NIF's 192 lasers fired in perfect unison, delivering a record 1.875 million joules (MJ) of ultraviolet laser light…
