Maintaining the NIF Power Supply
Power Conditioning System technician Daisy Acosta-Lech removes a resistor from a power conditioning unit in a NIF capacitor bay to make room for the replacement of its spark gap switch (the cylinder to the right of Daisy’s right hand). Each spark gap switch delivers about a half-million amps to NIF’s laser amplifiers, and the four capacitor bays store and release approximately 400 megajoules (million joules) of electrical energy for each NIF shot (see
Power Conditioning). Credit: James Pryatel
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