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National Ignition Facility &

NIF Fun Facts

The National Ignition Facility (NIF), became operational in March 2009. Planning began in the early 1990s, and ground was broken for the facility on May 29, 1997—12 years to the day before NIF’s dedication.

Construction Some other “Fun Facts” about NIF Construction of the main NIF building, known as • Number of large (meter-sized) optics: 7,500 the “conventional facility,” was completed in 2001. • Number of small optics: more than 26,000 • Building height: 10 stories • Length of NIF laser glass if stacked • Building width: 3 football fields end-to-end: 1.5 miles • Cubic meters of soil excavated: • Time to grow NIF using traditional more than 160,000 techniques: up to 2 years • Cubic meters of concrete poured: • Time to grow crystals using LLNL-developed more than 55,000 rapid-growth process: 2 months • Tons of reinforcing steel rebar installed: 7,600 • Tons of structural steel erected: Target chamber about 5,000 The NIF target chamber was installed in June 1999. • Hours of craft labor worked: • Weight: 130 metric tons (287,000 pounds) more than 1.7 million • Diameter: 10 meters (33 feet) • Exterior material: Welded aluminum covered by NIF Optics 1 foot of neutron-absorbing concrete NIF is not only the world’s highest- laser, • Interior wall: Stainless-steel louvers it’s also the largest optical instrument ever built. • Capacity of installation crane: 900 tons NIF scientists worked closely with optics vendors • Trucks required to transport crane from Nevada to develop the required for NIF’s Test Site: 66 construction. The partnership made dramatic improvements in manufacturing precision Target bay large optics, including continuous-pour glass, The target bay houses the final optics assemblies, rapid-growth crystals, optical coatings, and new diagnostics, and the target chamber. finishing techniques that can withstand the ultra- • Height: 30 meters (98 feet) high energy of the NIF lasers. • Diameter: 30 meters • Material: Reinforced concrete NIF’s major optics vendors include • Wall thickness: 2 meters (6.5 feet) • Cleveland Crystals • Hoya Corp. USA Laser bay • ITT Laser Bay 2 was commissioned in August 2007; • Kodak Laser Bay 1 was commissioned in September 2008. • SCHOTT North America, Inc. • Number of laser beams: 192 • Spectra- • Length of laser bay: 122 meters (400 feet) • Tinsley • Number of amplifier glass slabs: • Zygo Corp. more than 3,100 • Number of large (meter-sized) optics in Total optical surface beamlines: 7,500 NIF’s total optical surface area is three-quarters • Number of small optics in beamlines: of an acre—40 times the surface area of the more than 26,000 giant Keck telescope in Hawaii. • Number of flashlamps: 7,680 • Number of line replaceable units (mechanical housings that hold the , , and utilities): 6,206 Fun Facts

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Lawrence Livermore National • 7000 East Avenue • Livermore, CA, 94550 • 925.422.1100 • lasers.llnl.gov NIF National Ignition Facility & Photon Science

Lasers Fusion fuel NIF’s laser pulses are generated by an NIF’s fuel consists of deuterium and tritium, two laser called the master oscillator. forms of hydrogen with one or two extra neutrons. • Duration of laser pulse: 20 billionths of a second • Temperature prior to compression: 18 kelvins • Length of laser pulse: 6.1 meters (20 feet) (-427 degrees Fahrenheit) • Total distance of pulse travel from master • Temperature at ignition: 100 million kelvins (180 oscillator to target chamber: 1,500 meters million degrees Fahrenheit), more than six times (4,900 feet) hotter than the core of the sun • Duration of pulse travel: • Pressure at ignition: about 5 millionths of a second More than 100 billion atmospheres • Initial laser energy: 1 billionth of a joule • Density at ignition: • Laser amplification: 4 million billion times Up to 100 times the density of lead •  laser energy at full power: 4.2 megajoules (million joules) Power Conditioning System • Equivalent peak power: 500 trillion NIF’s high-voltage are charged for •  laser energy at full power: 1.8 about 60 seconds before releasing their energy. megajoules • Length of energy burst: 400 microseconds (millionths of a second) Control system • Electrical system peak power: The NIF Control Room, housing the Integrated More than 1 trillion watts Computer Control System, is modeled on NASA’s • Total length of high-voltage cable: Mission Control in Houston, Texas, and is one of More than 305 kilometers (about 190 miles) the most complex automated control systems ever designed for a scientific . Switchyards • Control points (for motorized mirrors and lenses, After amplification in the laser bays, the energy and power sensors, video cameras, laser NIF beams enter the switchyards, where amplifiers, and pulse power and diagnostic they are redirected by turning mirrors instruments): more than 60,000 to the target chamber. • Number of computers: 850 • Height of switchyards: 30 meters (98 feet) • Lines of computer code: more than 2 million • Tons of steel in switchyard space frame • Beam alignment tolerance on target: 50 structures: 1,000 micrometers (millionths of a meter) • Thickness of reinforced concrete walls: 0.6 meters • Beam timing tolerance on target: 30 trillionths (2 feet) of a second

Targets A variety of NIF targets are designed and machined to meet the needs of different experiments. • Hohlraum material: gold • Target capsule material: beryllium or • Hohlraum length: 9 millimeters (thousandths of a meter) • Hohlraum diameter: 5 millimeters • Target capsule diameter: 2 millimeters • Target fill tube diameter: 10 micrometers (millionths of a meter) • Construction tolerance (density, concentricity, and surface smoothness): 1 micrometer

38 llnl-br-611652_15_nif-0210-18390r5_nif_fun_facts NIF&PS is a program of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration LL N L- b r - 6 1 1 6 5 2