NIF's 1-MJ shot sets stage for ignition demo

摘要

The Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration announced on January 27 that researchers at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have delivered a single burst of laser light carrying more than 1 megajoule of energy to a target in a few bil-lionths of a second, demonstrating that the 192-beam system is ready to be used on target capsules that will show whether the ignition of fusion fuel can take place. The NIF is scheduled to begin experiments this summer with what are referred to as "ignition-like fuel capsules" to show whether this system can produce ignition and significant net energy gain.