National Ignition Facility Breakthrough: Experiment Puts Researchers at Threshold of Fusion Ignition
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National Ignition Facility Breakthrough: Experiment Puts Researchers at Threshold of Fusion Ignition:
On August 8, 2021, an experiment at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's (LLNL's) National Ignition Facility (NIF) made a significant step toward ignition, achieving a yield of more than 1.3 megajoules (MJ). This advancement puts researchers at the threshold of fusion ignition, an important goal of the NIF, and opens access to a new experimental regime.
The experiment was enabled by focusing laser light from NIF - the size of three football fields - onto a target the size of a BB that produces a hot-spot the diameter of a human hair, generating more than 10 quadrillion watts of fusion power for 100 trillionths of a second.
"These extraordinary results from NIF advance the science that NNSA depends on to modernize our nuclear weapons and production as well as open new avenues of research," said Jill Hruby, DOE under secretary for Nuclear Security and NNSA administrator.
[...] "This result is a historic step forward for inertial confinement fusion research, opening a fundamentally new regime for exploration and the advancement of our critical national security missions. It is also a testament to the innovation, ingenuity, commitment and grit of this team and the many researchers in this field over the decades who have steadfastly pursued this goal," said LLNL Director Kim Budil. "For me it demonstrates one of the most important roles of the national labs - our relentless commitment to tackling the biggest and most important scientific grand challenges and finding solutions where others might be dissuaded by the obstacles."
Journal Reference:
K. L. Baker, C. A. Thomas, D. T. Casey, et al. Hotspot parameter scaling with velocity and yield for high-adiabat layered implosions at the National Ignition Facility, Physical Review E (DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.102.023210)
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