The Grand Challenge of Thermonuclear Ignition

摘要

Scientists often refer to formidable scientific and technological hurdles with far-reaching consequences as grand challenges. One of the enduring grand challenges is achieving nuclear fusion—the power source of the Sun and stars and the physical process at the core of Livermore's national security mission—in a laboratory environment. Since our founding, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has been one of the world's centers for fusion research. Immediately after the laser was invented in 1960, Laboratory scientists understood the possibility of using coherent light to ignite a fusion microexplosion. Since then, Livermore researchers have led the world in the goal of achieving controlled thermonuclear burn in the laboratory using laser light.