Livermore scientists to begin fusion quest before end of month
attempt fusion ignition. In a 2005 Livermore laboratory newsletter, Ed Moses, now NIF’s principal associate director, said, “There is more agreement and commitment to the goal of ignition in 2010 among our sister labs and the National Nuclear Security Administration than ever before.”
In 2006, while requesting funding from Congress, Linton Brooks, then an undersecretary with the National Nuclear Security Administration, said that $423 million of the requested funds would go “to achieve the ignition milestone” in 2010 at NIF.
Bohan writes that the Livermore lab’s public affairs office did not respond to requests to explain the discrepancy between promises of a bona fide attempt at ignition this month with plans which, in fact, merely run experiments at the facility that would fall short of that. Seaver wrote in an earlier e-mail that “these experiments put us further down the pathway to ignition.”
Jonathan Gill, an assistant director with the Government Accountability Office and one of the authors of the agency’s report, said, “There has always been this skepticism about can they do this by Oct. 1, 2010. I think over the long term there was more confidence they would be able to achieve ignition.”
These experiments that start this month put the facility on the final stretch of the “National Ignition Campaign.” The campaign is headed by the Livermore lab and includes partnerships with the University of Rochester, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories. It started in 2005, and by 2012 the campaign aims to not only achieve ignition and reap excess energy from the reaction, but also to reliably repeat the fusion experiments.
One major milestone with the September experiments will be the fact that it is the first time NIF has used deuterium and tritium — the two forms of hydrogen behind the powerful fusion reactions in hydrogen bombs — in the peppercorn-sized fuel capsule upon which the facility’s 192 powerful lasers direct their energy. NIF scientists will continue using the two hydrogen isotopes in their quest to achieve ignition.
Taking a stair-step approach toward ignition “was deemed a better way to get into the operating space where you would expect ignition to occur,” he said.
Bohan writes that the GAO report, published in April, focused on the daunting scientific and technical challenges that remain in the way of successful ignition. The glass optics, for one, are prone to damage from the powerful lasers, and it is unclear if it would be practical economically or technically to continue replacing damaged optics during fusion operations.
Instabilities between the laser beams and the plasma in a cylinder that holds the fuel capsule can thwart success, as energy for driving the fusion reaction can be lost. A loss of perfect spherical symmetry in the tiny fuel capsule as it compresses can prevent ignition, the report stated.
The GAO report also faulted lab officials for waiting until 2009 to form a scientific review committee, as suggested in 2005, to identify potential pitfalls. The GAO also advised having this committee report to the nuclear security administration, rather than the Livermore lab director, to increase candor in assessments about NIF. The report also detailed management weaknesses by the National Nuclear Security Administration that led to increased costs and delays in ignition-related activities.
The Livermore lab public affairs office declined to provide comment on the GAO report’s findings. Deeney praised the report. “We basically appreciated the GAO study,” he said. “It was very thorough and very well done.” His agency is implementing all of the GAO’s recommendations, Deeney said. That includes forming a separate NIF scientific review panel that reports to the nuclear security administration.
