Nature Article on NIF Repurposing as Weapons Research Facility
An editorial in Nature discusses the thin line that exists for scientists between enthusiasm and promising too much. Nature says scientists at The National Ignition Facility created unrealistic expectations, inspiring politicians about the potential for the NIF to create not only net energy from laser fusion, but also to scale up fusion power plants in the near future. Now, having missed a deadline, the NIF is under fire. Nature suggests that the NIF will continue fusion energy research, but will need to better balance expectations. From the article:
The NIF is a jaw-dropping piece of technology. It trains 192 separate laser beams on to a capsule of hydrogen fuel a few millimetres long. The power from the lasers compresses the fuel until it fuses, creating energy from the mass of the hydrogen isotopes. The NIF’s goal is to produce break-even energy from this fusion — no mean feat, considering that the input energy can be up to 1.8 megajoules.
In 2005, the LLNL and the US National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the lab, laid out a plan to reach the break-even point. The National Ignition Campaign, which kicked off the following year, aimed to bring the fledgling facility up to full power, kit it out with diagnostics and perform a series of tests on its hydrogen fuel. Tellingly, the original plan does not commit the lab to reach ignition, but instead called for “a credible ignition experimental campaign”.
But during the past six years, expectations around the NIF have grown well beyond that credible campaign. In many ways, the lab itself is to blame for the unrealism. Lab officials gave tours to prominent politicians and journalists in which they promised a lot more than just ignition. The NIF, they claimed, was the first step on the road to potentially unlimited fusion energy. In support of their dream, LLNL scientists developed a prototype for an electricity-producing reactor that they hoped would gain financing once ignition was achieved.
To read the full article, click here.
