Glitches delay NIF’s ignition tests

New York Times : The $3.5 billion National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has delayed the next set of experiments for six months to install new safety equipment. At NIF, 192 powerful lasers are trained on a pea-sized pellet of hydrogen isotopes, which is heated to more than 100 million degrees to fuse the atoms together and release nuclear energy. Among the challenges faced is the unanticipated presence of particles that clog filters designed to prevent the escape of radioactive material. Officials have proposed bypassing the filters for some experiments and venting radioactive particles directly into the air. Researchers have also discovered that more power will be needed for some tests than first thought. They propose nearly tripling the amount of laser power to 120 megajoules.