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Schwarzenegger touts energy innovations at LLNL's National Ignition Facility
Press Release
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Monday, November 10, 2008

LIVERMORE, Calif. - As the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) approaches completion, researchers are preparing for the scientific grand challenges of providing limitless clean fusion-based energy, national security and understanding the science of the cosmos.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is briefed while standing in front of the National Ignition Facility's 10-meter diameter target chamber.
From left, LLNL director George Miller; Bruce Goodwin, principal associate director for Weapons and Complex Integration directorate; Susan Kennedy, governor's chief of staff; the governor, Edward Moses, principal associate director of the National Ignition Facility; George Shultz, former United States Secretary of State.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger toured the stadium-sized NIF facility Monday for briefings on its missions. NIF, the world's largest laser, was constructed under the auspices of the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. NIF is 99 percent complete and is scheduled for completion in March 2009. Shortly thereafter, U.S. scientists will begin experiments preparing for fusion ignition, the energy source that powers the sun and the stars.

While at the National Ignition Facility, the Governor was briefed on LIFE. LIFE (Laser Inertial Confinement Fusion-Fission Energy) is an energy production concept that will use a laser system similar to NIF that could be used to generate abundant carbon-free electricity far into the foreseeable future.

"An aggressive development of this technology could lead to a LIFE pilot power generation plant in the 2020 timeframe followed by commercial deployment in the following 10 years," said Ed Moses, who heads up the NIF and is a leader in the development of LIFE.

"This laser technology has the potential to revolutionize our energy future," Gov. Schwarzenegger said. "If successful, this new endeavor could generate thousands of megawatts of carbon-free nuclear power but without the drawbacks of conventional nuclear plants. This type of innovation is why we are a world leader in science, technology and clean energy, and I could not be prouder that this work is happening right here in California."

In the next few years NIF will take the next major step toward realizing LIFE power production by completing the first demonstration of fusion ignition in the laboratory. Laser-fusion has been a grand challenge of scientists around the world for 50 years, since the invention of the laser. Moses said, "Now we are within reach of attempting this goal."

Founded in 1952, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has a mission to ensure national security and to apply science and technology to the important issues of our time. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is managed by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC (LLNS) for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.

NOTE from New Energy Times editor: The story that an LLNL director and senior scientist tell to a scientific audience differs significantly from that which is told by LLNL's media relations department.

Note Related Article: http://www.newenergytimes.com/v2/news/2007/NET25.shtml#enesco

Edward Moses, associate director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, spoke about the other big fusion research program: inertial confinement, or laser fusion program.

Moses said that the lab expected its National Ignition Facility to get its first ignition in 2010.

A member of the audience asked him how much energy it would create, and he gave an impressive-sounding number. But then the questioner asked him to clarify whether that meant the facility would generate net energy, and Moses said no, that was not the point.

"NIF should be looked at as an exploration to learn more about fusion, not as an energy-producing experiment," he said.

Moses said that overall efficiency "from the wall plug" to that released from the laser reaction was expected to be only 20 percent of the input power in the foreseeable future.

He mentioned that John H. Nuckolls, director of the lab suggested that, "by 2100, their goal is to capture 10 percent of the energy market."

Note Related Article: http://www.newenergytimes.com/v2/news/2006/NET17.shtml#nes1

New Energy Times closely follows all of the various forms of fusion research, and I had the opportunity to speak with Craig Smith, a senior scientist with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, on the progress of the National Ignition Facility, the primary U.S. research facility dedicated to conventional inertial confinement fusion.

Attention to this form of fusion research has been overshadowed recently by the rhetoric about the magnetic confinement fusion research program, which now has all its bets placed on ITER, the international thermonuclear experimental reactor to be built in Cadarache, France.

I asked Smith to comment on the progress at Lawrence Livermore and when we might expect any practical applications from that energy research.

Smith explained that the National Ignition Facility "has, at least as part of its mission, the development of fusion energy technology, and this plant consists of 192 separate lasers, any one of which is, by far, the largest laser in the world."

After a brief review of the differences between magnetic confinement fusion and inertial confinement fusion, Smith responded, "My understanding is that, by the year 2010 or so, there will be some experimental applications that will give us important answers concerning the viability of inertial confinement fusion as an energy source."

Despite the less-than-optimistic outlook for inertial confinement fusion as practical application, Smith was clearly enthusiastic about conventional nuclear power.

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