NIF to scale back fusion research
Geoff Brumfiel wrote an interesting article for Nature on the latest developments at the National Ignition Facility (NIF). After missing a critical end-of-the-fiscal-year target of achieving “ignition”, the NIF is receiving some push back from Congress. Since the NIF falls under the umbrella of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), their mission is to both conduct research on laser fusion but also to carryout the nuclear weapons stockpile stewardship program. As a result of latest fusion setback, Congress is likely going to direct the NIF to reduce time spent on fusion energy research from 80% to 50%. From the article:
Now federal officials and the US Congress are preparing to set a new direction for the US$3.5-billion facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. A series of reports commissioned by the government, Congress and the University of California, which administers the lab, are all due later this month. They are expected to outline plans to cut its time for ignition research from 80% to 50% and to give the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), which is responsible for maintaining the US nuclear arsenal, a more central role in determining the NIF’s priorities. The NNSA is planning to emphasize experiments that mimic conditions inside nuclear weapons, generating data to validate the computer codes used to check that the nation’s warheads remain viable — essential work, given the voluntary moratorium on underground testing that began in 1992.
Nobody has given up on ignition, declares Donald Cook, deputy administrator for defence programmes at the NNSA. But a new programme for generating net energy will take a slower, more methodical approach. “We’re now going to get right into the science of what issues are preventing ignition and work through them,” he says. “But we believe that’s going to take a fair amount of work.”
To read the full article, click here.
