The National Ignition Facility (NIP) at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is a stadium-sized facility containing a 192-beam, 1.8-Megajoule, 500-Terawatt, ultraviolet laser system together with a 10-meter diameter target chamber with room for nearly 100 experimental diagnostics. NIF will be the world's largest and most energetic laser experimental system, providing a scientific center to study inertial confinement fusion and matter at extreme energy densities and pressures. NIF's energetic laser beams will compress fusion targets to conditions required for thermonuclear burn, liberating more energy than required to initiate the fusion reactions. Other NIF experiments will study physical processes at temperatures approaching 10{sup 8} K and 10{sup 11} bar, conditions that exist naturally only in the interior of stars, planets and in nuclear weapons. NIF has completed the first phases of its laser commissioning program. The first four beams of NIF have generated 106 kilojoules of infrared light exceeding design requirements. Operation of single beams at the second harmonic (531 nm) and third harmonic (351 nm) at greater than 10 kJ have also exceeded the performance criteria. NIFs target experimental systems are being commissioned and experiments have begun. This paper provides a detailed look the NIF laser systems, laser and optical performance and results from recent laser commissioning shots, and plans for commissioning diagnostics for experiments on NIF.

The National Ignition Facility (NIF), currently under construction at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, is a stadium-sized facility containing a 192-beam, 1.8-Megajoule, 500-Terawatt, ultraviolet laser system together with a 10-meter diameter target chamber with room for nearly 100 experimental diagnostics. When completed, NIF will be the world's largest and most energetic laser experimental system, providing an international center to study inertial confinement fusion and the physics of matter at extreme energy densities and pressures. NIF's 192 energetic laser beams will compress fusion targets to conditions required for thermonuclear burn, liberating more energy than required to initiate the fusion reactions. Other NIF experiments will allow the study of physical processes at temperatures approaching 10{sup 8} K and 10{sup 11} Bars, conditions that exist naturally only in the interior of stars, planets and in nuclear weapons. NIF has now completed the first phases of its laser commissioning program. The first four beams of NIF have generated 106 kilo-joules of infrared light, exceeding design requirements. Operation of single beams at the second harmonic (531 nm) and third harmonic (351 nm) at greater than 10 kilojoules have also exceeded the performance criteria. NIF's target experimental systems are being commissioned and experiments have begun. This paper provides a detailed look the NIF laser systems, laser and optical performance and results from recent laser commissioning shots, and plans for commissioning diagnostics for experiments on NIF.

Time resolved hard x-ray images (hv> 9 keV) and time integrated hard x-ray spectra (hv = 18-150 keV) from vacuum hohlraums irradiated with four 351 nm wavelength NIF laser beams are presented as a function of hohlraum size and laser power and duration. The hard x-ray images and spectra provide insight into the time evolution of the hohlraum plasma filling and the production of hot electrons. The fraction of laser energy detected as hot electrons (f{sub hot}) and a comparison to a filling model are presented.

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is a 192-beam laser facility presently under construction at LLNL. When completed, NIF will be a 1.8-MJ, 500-TW ultraviolet laser system. Its missions are to obtain fusion ignition and to perform high energy density experiments in support of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile. Four of the NIF beams have been commissioned to demonstrate laser performance including target and beam alignment. During this time, NIF demonstrated on a single-beam basis that it will meet its performance goals and demonstrated its precision and flexibility for pulse shaping, pointing, timing and beam conditioning. It also performed four important experiments for Inertial Confinement Fusion and High Energy Density Science. Presently, the project is installing production hardware to complete the project in 2009 with the goal to begin ignition experiments in 2010. An integrated plan has been developed including the NIF operations, user equipment such as diagnostics and cryogenic target capability, and experiments and calculations to meet this goal.

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is a stadium-sized facility containing a 192-beam, 1.8-Megajoule, 500-Terawatt, ultraviolet laser system together with a 10-meter diameter target chamber with room for nearly 100 experimental diagnostics. NIF will be the world's largest and most energetic laser experimental system, providing a scientific center to study inertial confinement fusion (ICF) and matter at extreme energy densities and pressures. NIF's energetic laser beams will compress fusion targets to conditions required for thermonuclear burn, liberating more energy than required to initiate the fusion reactions. Other NIF experiments will study physical processes at temperatures approaching 108 K and 1011 bar, conditions that exist naturally only in the interior of stars, planets and in nuclear weapons. NIF has successfully activated, commissioned, and utilized the first four beams of the laser system to conduct over 300 shots between November 2002 and August 2004. NIF laser scientists have established that the laser meets nearly all performance requirements on a per beam basis for energy, uniformity, timing, and pulse shape. Using these four beams, ICF and high-energy-density physics researchers have conducted a number of experimental campaigns resulting in high quality data that could not be reached on any other laser system. We discuss the successful NIF Early Light Program including details of laser performance, examples of experiments performed to date, and recent advances in the ICF Program that enhance prospects for successful achievement of fusion ignition on NIF.