livermore, california

Britain's Ministry of Defence has announced a significant scientific and financial commitment to the US National Ignition Facility (NIF), the world's largest laser, being built at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

An initial investment of “tens of millions of US dollars” will fund research by British scientists to allow more rapid repeat firings of the 192 lasers in the NIF's target chamber.

Within 18 months, the ministry will complete a feasibility study of the United Kingdom building a second laser target chamber at the Livermore Laboratory. This could increase UK investment in the project to more than $100 million.

On target: the first laser target chamber at the National Ignition Facility was christened last week. Credit: AP/BEN MARGOT

The announcement of the British commitment to the NIF — the United States' largest single scientific project, costing $1.2 billion — was made by Graham Jordan, acting chief scientific adviser for the UK defence ministry, at a ceremony last Friday (11 June) marking the unveiling of the NIF's target chamber (see Nature 399, 514; 1999).

British scientists will soon join the NIF project at the Livermore Laboratory, said Jordan, although he declined to say how many. Jordan said that US progress on the “massive project” was “very impressive”.

Britain's investment will allow its scientists to perform experiments at the NIF, which is causing excitement over its potential contributions to nuclear stockpile stewardship, fusion energy development and research in astrophysics, hydrodynamics and high-energy physics.

The UK team will join French scientists, who are already working at the Livermore Laboratory on NIF development. France is constructing its own ignition facility, the Laser MegaJoule, near Bordeaux.

The French facility is being built more slowly than the NIF, as French scientists seek to learn from the US project. Jacques Bouchard, director of military applications for the French Atomic Energy Commission, said at last week's ceremony that French scientists “were more conservative” than the US team on the number of lasers needed for the target chamber. Construction of the NIF is likely to be finished in 2003, with the French facility being completed five years later.

When fired, the 192 lasers will concentrate on a capsule of deuterium and tritium, the two heavy isotopes of hydrogen, forcing them to combine through compression and heating them to produce ignition and self-sustained fusion burn.

Bruce Tarter, director of the Livermore Laboratory, said that confidence was growing over the creation of “a thermonuclear reaction” that could be used for nuclear stockpile stewardship and research.

US Department of Energy (DoE) officials said last week that the NIF project was on schedule and on budget, with $700 million spent so far on the containment building and the 150-ton laser target chamber it will house.

If Britain goes ahead with the second target chamber, it would be adjacent to the current chamber, allowing scientists to increase significantly the rate of experiments.

DoE secretary Bill Richardson dedicated the NIF target chamber at the ceremony, and said: “This is a landmark toward achieving ignition. NIF will help maintain the safety and reliability of America's nuclear deterrent and expand the frontiers of science.”

Richardson said that the greatest value of the British and French contributions to the NIF was “not the sharing of cost, but the sharing of minds”.

Jordan said later that participation in NIF will permit the United Kingdom to engage in nuclear stockpile stewardship using the most advanced scientific techniques.