NNSA rejiggering NIF

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s longtime goal with its National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was “ignition” – a tiny self-sustaining nuclear fusion reaction that puts out more energy than the energy in the laser pulses used to pop it off.

That hasn’t worked. So NIF’s new goal, according to a the Independent (a Livermore paper) now seems to be the sort of self-referential goal of figuring out why NIF doesn’t work:

The disagreement between NIF experimental data and codes and models reflects an inadequate understanding of key physics issues required to make this determination. Plans are to move forward with a three year nationally-based program using NIF for a broad-based experimental program addressing a more diverse range of scientific issues and opportunities. The emphasis at the facility will shift towards improving computer models until they match up with what has been measured experimentally. Once the codes and models are improved to the point at which agreement is reached, NNSA will be able to determine whether and by what approach ignition can be achieved at the NIF. While that does not mean the end of ignition experiments, it does mean that more of the beam-time at NIF will be used to simulate nuclear weapons and for fundamental science, including some non-ignition work.