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Going Nuclear: Notes from the officially unofficial book tour
I work in the analytical labs at one of Europe’s oldest and largest nuclear sites: Sellafield, in northwestern England. I spend my days at the fume hood front, pipette in one hand and radiation probe in the other (and dosimeter pinned to my chest, of course). Outside the lab, I have a second job: I moonlight as a writer and public speaker. My new popular science book—Going Nuclear: How the Atom Will Save the World—came out last summer, and it feels like my life has been running at full power ever since.
S. W. Haan, J. Atherton, D. S. Clark, B. A. Hammel, D. A. Callahan, C. J. Cerjan, E. L. Dewald, S. Dixit, M. J. Edwards, S. Glenzer, S. P. Hatchett, D. Hicks, O. S. Jones, O. L. Landen, J. D. Lindl, M. M. Marinak, B. J. Macgowan, A. J. Mackinnon, N. B. Meezan, J. L. Milovich, D. H. Munro, H. F. Robey, J. D. Salmonson, B. K. Spears, L. J. Suter, R. P. Town, S. V. Weber, J. L. Kline, D. C. Wilson
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 63 | Number 2 | March-April 2013 | Pages 67-75
Technical Paper | Selected papers from 20th Target Fabrication Meeting, May 20-24, 2012, Santa Fe, NM, Guest Editor: Robert C. Cook | doi.org/10.13182/FST13-TFM20-31
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The National Ignition Campaign (NIC) on the National Ignition Facility plans to use an indirectly driven spherical implosion to assemble and ignite a mass of D-T fuel. The NIC is currently in the process of conducting a variety of experiments using surrogate targets, meant to define various aspects of the future ignition experiment. Four platforms have been developed: Re-emit targets measure the symmetry of the early part of the pulse, keyhole targets measure the strength and time of shocks, symcap targets measure integrated performance and implosion symmetry, and ConA targets measure implosion velocity and ablator performance. Also, cryogenic layered capsules similar to the ignition design, containing a layer of either D-T or hydrodynamically equivalent tritium-rich fuel, are being fielded. These integrate the laser and target adjustments made during the tuning experiments and test the integrated performance with data on RhoR, temperature, yield, and other diagnostics. In an activity ongoing with these experiments, the point design for ignition is updated and modified as appropriate. This paper summarizes the target designs that are being used for the campaign, the results of the experimental campaign to date, and how the campaign has affected requirements for the eventual ignition experiment.