Public Lectures

Presented by Edward Moses, Principal Associate Director for the National Ignition Facility and Photon Science Directorate

Wednesday, April 18, 2012
4:30 pm
1178 Franz Hall

Coffee will be served at IPAM before the talk, and the audience will be invited to reception at IPAM immediately following.

Abstract:

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is quickly evolving into the world’s largest and most energetic laser with applications to strategic security, fundamental science and fusion energy. By concentrating intense laser energy into a mm-sized target, NIF can produce conditions that have never been created in a laboratory and emulate those in planetary interiors and stellar environments. Experiments have been completed in support of materials equation of state, materials strength and radiation transport in extreme temperature and pressure conditions. The National Ignition Campaign, an international effort pursued at the NIF, has the goal of achieving fusion ignition in the laboratory—the culmination of a 50-year quest. Achieving ignition will demonstrate the viability of inertial fusion energy as a clean source of energy. This talk will describe the unprecedented experimental capabilities of the NIF, its role in strategic security and basic science, and the pathway to achieving fusion ignition to create a clean energy future.