Producer's Notes - Super Laser at the National Ignition Facility
Inside the National Ignition Facility. Lawrence Livermore National Lab is building the world's largest laser. Actually, the National Ignition Facility won't have only one laser beam. It will use 192 world-class lasers, all firing simultaneously. In a few billionths of a second about 500 trillion watts, which is nearly 1000 times the power generated in the entire US at any moment, will hit a target the size of a dime. The hope is that this will create enough heat and pressure to mimic the core of the sun and achieve a fusion ignition.
So in a nutshell, what is fusion? And how do lasers work? Why are you asking me? I was the kid who always struggled with math and would get hives on the eve of a high school science test.
Luckily, there are some darn good teachers out there and we were fortunate enough to feature one of them in our story. Richard Muller is a professor of physics at the University of California and has also become something of a web phenomenon. Thousands of "students" all over the world have viewed his lecture series titled "Physics for Future Presidents" on YouTube and Cal's own website.
Muller designed this class to "stress conceptual understanding rather than math, with applications to current events." As he told us, "imagine looking out on your classroom and picturing out there is the future president of the United States. What do you want that person to know?" What comes out is an explanation of the physics of energy, nuclear weapons, radioactivity, relativity and the universe– all explained in a way that the physics-challenged, like myself or maybe a future president, can understand.
Watch the "Super Laser at the National Ignition Facility" TV Story online, as well as find additional links and resources.
Chris Bauer is a Segment Producer for television on QUEST.
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This week scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory test fired the NIF Laser and took a major step towards creating fusion. According to their report in the journal Science, they were able to successfully fire all 192 laser beams simultaneously at a helium-filled target, instantly heating the tiny capsule to 6 million degrees Fahrenheit. In a billionth of a second, the gas vanished.
In order to reach fusion in the future, the lasers will need to heat the target up to 200 million degrees Fahrenheit and create pressures only found in the interior of stars.
If they can achieve a true fusion reaction, someday they will be able to develop large scale fusion reactor power plants that could power the world cleanly and safely using hydrogen isotopes from sea water.
To read more, see:
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-01/nif-moves-59-million-degrees-closer-fusion-power?page=
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/29/MN5K1BOF4V.DTL&tsp=1