National Ignition Facility makes history with record 500 terawatt shot
July 18, 2012
The preamplifiers of the National Ignition Facility are the first step in increasing the energy of laser beams as they make their way toward the target chamber. NIF recently achieved a 500 terawatt shot – 1,000 times more power than the United States uses at any instant in time. (Credit: Damien Jemison/LLNL)
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 terawatts is 1,000 times more power than the United States uses at any instant in time, and 1.85 megajoules of energy is about 100 times what any other laser regularly produces today.
The shot validated NIF’s most challenging laser performance specifications set in the late 1990s when scientists were planning the world’s most energetic laser facility. Combining extreme levels of energy and peak power on a target in the NIF is a critical requirement for achieving one of physics’ grand challenges — igniting hydrogen fusion fuel in the laboratory and producing more energy than that supplied to the target.
“NIF is becoming everything scientists planned when it was conceived over two decades ago,” NIF Director Edward Moses said. “It is fully operational, and scientists are taking important steps toward achieving ignition and providing experimental access to user communities for national security, basic science and the quest for clean fusion energy.”
NIF is influencing the design of new giant laser facilities being built or planned in the United Kingdom, France, Russia, Japan and China.
Located at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, NIF is funded by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a semi-autonomous agency within the U.S. Department of Energy responsible for enhancing national security through the application of nuclear science to the nation’s national security enterprise.
NIF is the latest, and arguably the most sophisticated, addition to a number of critical stockpile stewardship facilities. It is the only facility with the potential to duplicate the actual phenomena that occur in the heart of a modern nuclear device — a goal that is critical to sustaining confidence that a return to underground nuclear testing remains unnecessary.
NIF also is providing unique experimental opportunities for scientists to enhance our understanding of the universe by creating the same extreme states of matter that exist in the centers of planets, stars and other celestial objects. Additionally, experiments at NIF are laying the groundwork to revolutionize energy production with fusion energy to provide abundant and sustainable clean energy.
Comments (20)
by Bri
I’m really hoping someone will check out the Papps noble gas engine, and comment on this site. It’s real, it works. If they were in production since it was invented, we wouldn’t be having this type of discussion. Thrive.com the movie, explains how it works. The patent explains how it works. No gas bills, no gas shortage, cheap desalination, because it’s energy expensive. Works in space cause it dosn’t burn fuel. No home electric bill, etc. This is a very provocative statement, and yet nobody is looking at this , on this web site. It’s real seince, otherwise Joe would not have demonstrated it at Caltect. They would have torn it apart technically. Does anybody out there have any curiosity? It literally could save the planet, and yet I don’t hear a peep out of any of you!
by Chrispium
Because it’s a HOAX!
by Bri
Ha!!! That’s why Caltect settled the law suit out of court, and Joe didn’t go to jail! If it were a hoax, the death would be reckless, and Joe Papps would have been responsible. The police found no trace of explosives! If the engine didn’t work, where did the energy to explode come from, neon, argon ?!!! Look at the patent, it’s a very simple design. The engine at the demo was the same as the patent. He was showing it of to the top scientist of the day, not investors to swindle there money. His buisness partner couldn’t figure out why the thrust was perpendicular to the vortex. That’s a key feature of torus vortex, as described in Thrive.com the movie. In nature it manefests as those supperluminal jets coming out the poles of a quasar. Just saying the word hoax, doesn’t disprove the engine. Show me how it’s a hoax!
by Just Bill Me
They didn’t have to “tear it apart” at Caltech . . . it exploded during the demonstration, killing one person and injuring two others. Do some research before you embarrass yourself again.
by Bri
The only one who should be embarrassed is you! The POLICE did a full investigation, they couldn’t find evidence of fraud. Caltech settled out of court. If Joe wasn’t responsible, then it was Richard Feymans fault, and by that Caltech’s fault. Do you think this is the only time Caltech has had something disastrous happen? They’ve got great lawyers, independent investigators, and some hefty insurance. They settled out of court, because they couldn’t prove fraud. Joe went on with the money, not to jail. He and his business partner were in and out of court for years. Don’t you think that the family of the person who died, would want to stop him with at least a wrongful death lawsuit? Who ever it was, he must have been a brainiac. Don’t you think that learned family, with a son in lofty Caltech was worth the effort to shut down a careless hoaxter and con man? The brains at Caltech did go over every scrap of evidence, but you guys are smarter than them. Despite thier best efforts they couldn’t pin it on Joe. Trying to intimidate me with ” embarrassment” is silly. I’m asking for an intellectual discussion on the case. Obviously your reading comprehension is low. Joe was paid off by Caltech to stop HIS lawsuit, not a lawsuit and jail for Joe. Joe goes on to demonstrate the engine to all the motor companies, if he were defrauding people, wouldn’t you expect him to do ot to gullible people with lots of money? Why did he hawk a artillery version to the military? There are patents issued for the device. Try and make a free energy machine hoax and get a patent. You have to make a working model and then it gets reviewed. If it’s a hoax, no PATENT! I was intrigued by the story before. What makes me “embarrass” myself in public, is the Thrive.com movie that Roberto refered to at Jacqe Frecos The Venus project. In that movie, they talk about the principals of these type engines, and that many have been invented, but all of them get shut down. Whatch that movie, reread Joe Papps story, and you will see. They use the torus vortex. Or do you believe Joe used some undetectable explosive, that the police and Caltech couldn’t find. The motor is simple. Two sealed piston reaction chambers, noble gases,some windings and an unusual spark plug. No intake or out take valves, just two pistons. What blew up?????
by HHiram
The future of energy? It seems unlikely, since there is no evidence of excess energy yet and even the most optimistic theoretical scenarios project a tiny COP.
Where is KurzweilAI’s coverage of Low Energy Nuclear Reactions? Several companies and researchers have already demonstrated excess heat, 60 Minutes just ran a program on cold fusion yesterday, and commercial heaters are slated to go on sale by the end of this year. Seems more likely that LENR is the future of energy.
by Editor
http://www.kurzweilai.net/nasa-video-on-lenr-low-energy-nuclear-reactions-a-clean-form-of-nuclear-energy
by Katherine MacLean (old science fiction writer and research fan
Military investment money influences the direction of research. DOD activities. are cloaked but logical DOD stratigists always must assume a future with a danger of. war and attack. then civilian beamed power must as a backup be convertable to a defensive weapon. Fund to build the hardware off Earth.
by Tom
The sad thing to me about anything ‘national’ science is that non-profit, non-business entities such as NIF have sucked up science graduates for decades and turned some into grant-writing drones.
by Satan
…and is now aimed at Syria…
by Conrad Green
I was definitely going to agree with starheart. I don’t think power abundance is the only thing on their minds. I think they may have a blueprint for a new economic system but power is the issue or maybe they built spaceships but don’t have a self sustaining power source that is good enough for what their trying to do. I wonder have they torn a rip in space yet. I heard talks of it. But no word yet other than that micro singularity they did a couple years ago.
by .?
What the fuck are you talking about?!
by Agnyupi
That’s all well and good. But how much more do they need?
by Starheart
I think hot fusion these days is suffering from a gambler’s paradox. As in, the more funds and efforts are invested into it without getting any tangible yield, the more incentive do sponsors have to continue investments because they can’t allow all previous efforts to go to waste.
While I doubt fusion power will permanently stay 20 years in the future from any given present moment, by the time it arrives, we will likely have not one but several commercial alternatives providing cheap, accessible and localized power.
by Gorden Russell
That’s a good point, Starheart. While I certainly have great hopes for fusion power and see it as a world-saver, if it is 20 years in the future…long before then we will have carbon photo-voltaics with over 80% efficiency and fuel cells using hydrogen to store energy overnight.
by Starheart
Regardless, fusion research is by no means a waste of effort. Of course, there is bound to be a niche where fusion performs significantly more efficiently than other commercial power source – maybe for deep space missions? Besides, fusion may have benefits for other technology than mere power production. Ultimately, the primary benefit of a fusion reactor is that it can break down absolutely anything, including hazardous waste otherwise rather tricky to dispose from.
by Darth
“It is fully operational”
by Chrispium
“You may fire when ready”
by Lance
Exactly what I was thinking! Its a weapon!
by Chrispium
A deathstar to be precise ;)