National Ignition Facility
American nuclear fusion facility
National Ignition Facility
The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is a laser-based inertial confinement fusion (ICF) research facility, located at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, United States. NIF's mission is to achieve fusion ignition with high energy gain. It achieved the first instance of scientific breakeven controlled fusion in an experiment on December 5, 2022, with an energy gain factor of 1.5. It supports nuclear weapon maintenance and design by studying the behavior of matter under the conditions found within nuclear explosions. NIF is the largest and most powerful ICF device built to date. The basic ICF concept is to squeeze a small amount of fuel to reach the pressure and temperature necessary for fusion. NIF hosts the world's most energetic laser, which indirectly heats the outer layer of a small sphere. The energy is so intense that it causes the sphere to implode, squeezing the fuel inside. The implosion reaches a peak speed of 350 km/s (0.35 mm/ns), raising the fuel...
Read on Wikipedia · Image Lawrence Livermore National Security, CC BY-SA 3.0
Open boosters, collect cards and trade them. Free to play.
Play for free