Computational Engineering is key to ignition success

In a room illuminated by blinking lights and glowing monitors, more than 2,000 synchronized computers are triggered to run 5 million lines of code. The intricate code language is responsible for aligning and firing 192 laser beams — and carrying some 800 channels of target diagnostic data — efficiently and reliably several times a day. This isn’t a scene from a science fiction movie: it’s the control room of LLNL’s National Ignition Facility (NIF).

The Computational Engineering Division (CED) within LLNL’s Engineering Directorate, is a critical but largely invisible element of the effort toward achieving nuclear fusion ignition. CED’s role in supporting NIF’s fusion energy goals is writing the algorithms that direct the lasers toward the hohlraum target and for various diagnostics that help determine how to make sense of NIF shots and to keep the fusion apparatus running. Read More...