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2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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Fusion Science and Technology
October 2025
Latest News
NNSA furloughs 1,400 employees, pays contractors until end of month
After nearly three weeks of a government shutdown, the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration has furloughed 1,400 employees and has retained 400 as essential employees who will continue working without pay.
Suhas Bhandarkar, Jim Fair, Ben Haid, Evan Mapoles, Jeff Atherton, Cliff Thomas, John Moody, Jeremy Kroll, Abbas Nikroo
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 73 | Number 3 | April 2018 | Pages 380-391
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1406249
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Early shots on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) were plagued by the buildup of a considerable mass of extraneous ice on the laser entry hole (LEH) windows, a consequence of condensation of the residual air. This resulted in higher than desired temperatures at the LEH, which combined with the variability of the ice thickness made this a problem that needed a robust solution. In this paper, we describe our work in designing a second thin film that shielded the LEH window from the contaminating ice. The detailed cryogenic considerations required to ensure the proper functioning of this new window were simulated and verified experimentally. The data from numerous subsequent shots showed marked improvement in performance, which made this feature an essential component for all cryogenic NIF targets.