Uploaded November 2022 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
What happens when 192 of the world’s highest-energy lasers converge on a target the size of a peppercorn filled with hydrogen atoms? Answer: the same thing that happens inside the Sun and the stars: fusion! The National Ignition Facility’s (NIF) laser beams can create nuclear fusion in the laboratory by generating the same kinds of temperatures and pressures that exist in the cores of stars and giant planets and inside nuclear weapons.
In this video, you can follow the journey of NIF’s laser beams as they increase in energy from 1 billionth of a joule to 2 million joules of ultraviolet energy by the time they reach the center of the Target Chamber. There, an array of diagnostic instruments measure what happens when the target capsule implodes and the hydrogen atoms inside fuse in a controlled thermonuclear fusion reaction, releasing enormous amounts of energy. Those diagnostics provide an invaluable stream of fusion-related data that informs researchers at the LLNL and around the world.
We use NIF’s lasers for several specific missions, including Stockpile Stewardship, high energy density science, Discovery Science, energy security, and building future generations of scientists. And we’re researching more types of applications, including advanced lasers and photonics, additive manufacturing, and missile defense.
For more information, go to:
lasers.llnl.gov/news/the-beamline-to-ignition-video
lasers.llnl.gov/about/how-nif-works
LLNL-VIDEO-840385
#NationalIgnitionFacility #FusionIgnition #LLNL
What happens when 192 of the world’s highest-energy lasers converge on a target the size of a peppercorn filled with hydrogen atoms? Answer: the same thing that happens inside the Sun and the stars: fusion! The National Ignition Facility’s (NIF) laser beams can create nuclear fusion in the laboratory by generating the same kinds of temperatures and pressures that exist in the cores of stars and giant planets and inside nuclear weapons.
In this video, you can follow the journey of NIF’s laser beams as they increase in energy from 1 billionth of a joule to 2 million joules of ultraviolet energy by the time they reach the center of the Target Chamber. There, an array of diagnostic instruments measure what happens when the target capsule implodes and the hydrogen atoms inside fuse in a controlled thermonuclear fusion reaction, releasing enormous amounts of energy. Those diagnostics provide an invaluable stream of fusion-related data that informs researchers at the LLNL and around the world.
We use NIF’s lasers for several specific missions, including Stockpile Stewardship, high energy density science, Discovery Science, energy security, and building future generations of scientists. And we’re researching more types of applications, including advanced lasers and photonics, additive manufacturing, and missile defense.
For more information, go to:
lasers.llnl.gov/news/the-beamline-to-ignition-video
lasers.llnl.gov/about/how-nif-works
LLNL-VIDEO-840385
#NationalIgnitionFacility #FusionIgnition #LLNL
