News

LLNL’s Kritcher Receives Excellence in Fusion Engineering Award

Annie Kritcher, design physicist and lead for integrated modeling in the Inertial Confinement Fusion program at LLNL, has been honored with the 2024 David J. Rose Excellence in Fusion Engineering Award by Fusion Power Associates.

Automated Target Measurements Contribute to LLNL's Ignition Success

An advanced technique for characterizing high-quality target capsules for NIF experiments has played an important role in LLNL's recent success in repeatedly achieving fusion ignition.

LLNL Intern Applies Lessons Learned from Home, Family

Brianna Barbee is taking a childhood lesson from her mother to heart—and it figured into her summer internship at LLNL.

Lab Scientists Win Three R&D 100 Awards

LLNL scientists and engineers, including a team from the NIF & Photon Science Diffractive Optics Group, have earned three awards among the top 100 inventions worldwide.

SPIE Names LLNL’s Zhi Liao a Senior Member

LLNL's Zhi Liao, the NIF&PS workforce manager, has been elected as a senior member of SPIE, the international society for optics and phonics.

A New Dimension of Glass

Scientists and engineers from NIF&PS and Physical and Life Sciences developed a process for generating trillions of nanoscale structures on meter-scale glass surfaces. Read the full story in Science & Technology Review.

Two LLNL Researchers Named to Optica’s 2024 Class of Senior Members

Paul Armstrong, a NIF&PS engineer, and Brent Stuart, operations manager for the Jupiter Laser Facility, have been named senior members of Optica.

Research Confirms Importance of Symmetry in Pre-Ignition Fusion Experiments

LLNL researchers have retrospectively confirmed that implosion asymmetry was a major aspect for fusion experiments before achieving ignition for the first time at NIF, the world’s most energetic laser.

Putting the Squeeze on Helium

Researchers are developing a way to “precompress” helium under very high pressure, then blasting it with NIF’s lasers to compress it even further. They want to learn the roles of density and temperature in converting liquid helium from an insulator to a metallic substance able to conduct electricity.

Fusion Power Associates Honors LLNL’s Bruno Van Wonterghem

NIF Operations Manager Bruno Van Wonterghem is being honored for "decades of tenacious dedication to scientific and operational excellence" at LLNL.

LLNL’s Tammy Ma Shares Fusion Energy Vision with TED

What would you do with the largest laser in the world? That’s the question LLNL physicist Tammy Ma posed to the audience on the main stage at the influential TED conference held in April in Vancouver.

LLNL Researchers Uncover Key to Resolving ICF Hohlraum Drive Deficit

LLNL researchers made advancements in resolving the long-standing “drive-deficit” problem in indirect-drive ICF experiments. This could pave the way for more accurate predictions and improved performance of fusion experiments at NIF.

Two LLNL Physicists Honored for International Collaboration

LLNL physicists Hye-Sook Park and George Swadling, Anna Grassi of France’s Sorbonne University, and former Lawrence Fellow Frederico Fiuza of Portugal’s Técnico Lisboa, received the 2024 Lev D. Landau and Lyman Spitzer Jr. Award for Outstanding Contributions to Plasma Physics.

Celebrating Ignition at City Center Bishop Ranch

Visitors to City Center Bishop Ranch in San Ramon can now learn about LLNL’s historic fusion ignition achievement while they shop and dine thanks to a new art installation on the exterior of the center.

Advancements in Z-Pinch Fusion: New Insights From Plasma Pressure Profiles

LLNL scientists reported advancements in understanding plasma pressure profiles within flow-stabilized Z-pinch fusion, a candidate for achieving net gain fusion energy in a compact device.

When Experiments Go Quiet: Maintaining the National Ignition Facility

When the lasers at NIF stop firing, the facility is anything but quiet. Facility maintenance and refurbishment teams work to keep NIF as finely tuned as a Formula One racecar (story includes a video).

LLNL Honors 23 as Distinguished Members of Technical Staff

Craig Siders and Vladimir Smalyuk from NIF&PS are among the 23 LLNL researchers named Distinguished Members of Technical Staff.

NIF Takes a Quantum Leap into Elusive Metallic Hydrogen

Experiments are underway in NIF’s Discovery Science program as researchers try to characterize hydrogen’s optical properties and equation of state — and perhaps create the metallic state of hydrogen predicted decades ago.

Fusion Ignition and the Path to Inertial Fusion Energy

The cover story in the latest edition of The Bridge magazine discusses LLNL’s achievement of ignition and what it means for stockpile stewardship and inertial fusion energy.

LLNL’s Annie Kritcher Honored with Liberty Science Center’s ‘Genius Award’

The Liberty Science Center of New Jersey presented LLNL physicist Annie Kritcher with its “Genius Award” for her work on the Lab team that achieved fusion ignition.