Laser lab shifts focus to warheads

摘要

After an unsuccessful campaign to demonstrate the principles of a futuristic fusion power plant, the worlds most powerful laser facility is set to change course and emphasize its nuclear weapons research.For the past six years, scientists and engineers at the US National Ignition Facility (NIF) have been working flat out to focus 192 laser beams on a gold-lined 'hohlraurn capsule, just a few millimetres long, containing a pellet of hydrogen isotopes. As 500 terawatts of laser power hits the capsule, it generates X-rays that blast into the pellet, causing the atoms of deuterium and tritium inside to fuse. The fusion converts a tiny amount of their mass into a burst of energy (see 'The NIF s fusion strategy').