The NIF & Photon Science Directorate is a premier international center for experimental science. NIF’s powerful laser beams create temperatures and pressures similar to those that exist in the cores of stars and giant planets and inside exploding nuclear weapons. These conditions enable hundreds of LLNL scientists, engineers, and technicians, along with national and international collaborators and users, to conduct one-of-a-kind experiments that help ensure the nation’s security through the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Stockpile Stewardship Program, achieve fusion ignition in the laboratory for the first time, and lay the groundwork for a safe, carbon-free, secure energy future through inertial fusion energy.