National Ignition Facility may shift focus toward nuclear weapons research

Nature : The National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California is likely to shift its focus following a series of reports due at the end of the month. Because of the lack of success of the facility in its attempts to initiate sustained fusion, it appears that the amount of time dedicated to ignition research will be reduced from 80% to 50%. The bulk of the freed time will be used by the National Nuclear Security Administration to mimic conditions in nuclear weapons explosions. Because the US entered a voluntary moratorium on actual nuclear weapons testing, it has had to rely on computer simulations to determine the effective status of its current weapons. The shift in focus is partly a result of criticisms, especially from Congress, concerning delays and cost increases for the facility, which began operations just 16 months ago after a decade of construction.