The National Ignition Facility: alignment from construction to shot operations

S. C. Burkhart; E. Bliss; P. Di Nicola; D. Kalantar; R. Lowe-Webb; T. McCarville; D. Nelson; T. Salmon; T. Schindler; J. Villanueva; K. Wilhelmsen

doi:10.1117/12.861485

7 September 2010 The National Ignition Facility: alignment from construction to shot operations

S. C. Burkhart, E. Bliss, P. Di Nicola, D. Kalantar, R. Lowe-Webb, T. McCarville, D. Nelson, T. Salmon, T. Schindler, J. Villanueva, K. Wilhelmsen

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 7797, Optics and Photonics for Information Processing IV; 77970M (2010) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.861485
Event: SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications, 2010, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

The National Ignition Facility in Livermore, California, completed it's commissioning milestone on March 10, 2009 when it fired all 192 beams at a combined energy of 1.1 MJ at 351nm. Subsequently, a target shot series from August through December of 2009 culminated in scale ignition target design experiments up to 1.2 MJ in the National Ignition Campaign. Preparations are underway through the first half of of 2010 leading to DT ignition and gain experiments in the fall of 2010 into 2011. The top level requirement for beam pointing to target of 50μm rms is the culmination of 15 years of engineering design of a stable facility, commissioning of precision alignment, and precise shot operations controls. Key design documents which guided this project were published in the mid 1990's, driving systems designs. Precision Survey methods were used throughout construction, commissioning and operations for precision placement. Rigorous commissioning processes were used to ensure and validate placement and alignment throughout commissioning and in present day operations. Accurate and rapid system alignment during operations is accomplished by an impressive controls system to align and validate alignment readiness, assuring machine safety and productive experiments.

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S. C. Burkhart, E. Bliss, P. Di Nicola, D. Kalantar, R. Lowe-Webb, T. McCarville, D. Nelson, T. Salmon, T. Schindler, J. Villanueva, and K. Wilhelmsen "The National Ignition Facility: alignment from construction to shot operations", Proc. SPIE 7797, Optics and Photonics for Information Processing IV, 77970M (7 September 2010); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.861485

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