One-foot-thick concrete doors lead to the central target chamber of the National Ignition Facility (NIF), a $3.5 billion research center dedicated to studying nuclear weapons. The mazelike facility is loud with the sound of whirring fans, banging equipment, and, on occasion, beeping signals. Each of the gigantic doors has been covered with concrete injected with boron, an element known for its ability to absorb high-energy neutrons that come blasting out of the chamber as a result of the explosive experiments taking place there.
Because of its shape, the three-story-tall central target chamber conjures images of the Death Star. But that's from the wrong movie. "If this looks familiar to you," says theoretical chemist Heather Whitley, the NIF's associate program director for high-energy-density science, "it could be because you saw Star Trek Into Darkness." Filmmakers used the chamber, which is surrounded by snaking pipes and intricate electronic sensors, as a stand-in for the Starship Enterprise's warp core.
The NIF is far more than just the world's most expensive movie prop. The central target chamber is situated between two football-field-size buildings on the grounds of the Lawrence Livermore National Lab in Northern California. The enormous blue sphere contains the world's largest and most powerful laser. Scientists can focus 192 individual ultraviolet laser beams onto targets no bigger than peppercorns. The targets implode with the force of a miniature nuclear blast. When this happens, for a fraction of a second, the target becomes the hottest place in the solar system, with temperatures exceeding 100 million degrees Fahrenheit and pressures 100 times denser than lead.
The only facility capable of conducting such experiments, the NIF has allowed scientists to pioneer fusion energy, investigate conditions in the bellies of stars, and answer questions about the complex physical processes that occur when a nuclear warhead goes off. |
One-foot-thick concrete doors lead to the central target chamber of the National Ignition Facility (NIF), a $3.5 billion research center dedicated to studying nuclear weapons. The mazelike facility is loud with the sound of whirring fans, banging equipment, and, on occasion, beeping signals. Each of the gigantic doors has been covered with concrete injected with boron, an element known for its ability to absorb high-energy neutrons that come blasting out of the chamber as a result of the explosive experiments taking place there.
Because of its shape, the three-story-tall central target chamber conjures images of the Death Star. But that's from the wrong movie. "If this looks familiar to you," says theoretical chemist Heather Whitley, the NIF's associate program director for high-energy-density science, "it could be because you saw Star Trek Into Darkness." Filmmakers used the chamber, which is surrounded by snaking pipes and intricate electronic sensors, as a stand-in for the Starship Enterprise's warp core.
The NIF is far more than just the world's most expensive movie prop. The central target chamber is situated between two football-field-size buildings on the grounds of the Lawrence Livermore National Lab in Northern California. The enormous blue sphere contains the world's largest and most powerful laser. Scientists can focus 192 individual ultraviolet laser beams onto targets no bigger than peppercorns. The targets implode with the force of a miniature nuclear blast. When this happens, for a fraction of a second, the target becomes the hottest place in the solar system, with temperatures exceeding 100 million degrees Fahrenheit and pressures 100 times denser than lead.
The only facility capable of conducting such experiments, the NIF has allowed scientists to pioneer fusion energy, investigate conditions in the bellies of stars, and answer questions about the complex physical processes that occur when a nuclear warhead goes off. |
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