Status of the National Ignition Facility Integrated Computer Control System (ICCS) on the Path to Ignition

Conference · Tue Sep 11 00:00:00 EDT 2007

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fusengdes.2007.09.014· OSTI ID:925679

Lagin, L J; Bettenhauasen, R C; Bowers, G A; Carey, R W; Edwards, O D; Estes, C M; Demaret, R D; Ferguson, S W; Fisher, J M; Ho, J C; Ludwigsen, A P; Mathisen, D G; Marshall, C D; Matone, J M; McGuigan, D L; Sanchez, R J; Shelton, R T; Stout, E A; Tekle, E; Townsend, S L ; Van Arsdall, P J; Wilson, E F

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is a stadium-sized facility under construction that will contain a 192-beam, 1.8-Megajoule, 500-Terawatt, ultraviolet laser system together with a 10-meter diameter target chamber with room for multiple experimental diagnostics. NIF is 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 laser beams are designed to compress fusion targets to conditions required for thermonuclear burn, liberating more energy than required to initiate the fusion reactions. NIF is comprised of 24 independent bundles of 8 beams each using laser hardware that is modularized into more than 6,000 line replaceable units such as optical assemblies, laser amplifiers, and multifunction sensor packages containing 60,000 control and diagnostic points. NIF is operated by the large-scale Integrated Computer Control System (ICCS) in an architecture partitioned by bundle and distributed among over 800 front-end processors and 50 supervisory servers. NIF's automated control subsystems are built from a common object-oriented software framework based on CORBA distribution that deploys the software across the computer network and achieves interoperation between different languages and target architectures. A shot automation framework has been deployed during the past year to orchestrate and automate shots performed at the NIF using the ICCS. In December 2006, a full cluster of 48 beams of NIF was fired simultaneously, demonstrating that the independent bundle control system will scale to full scale of 192 beams. At present, 72 beams have been commissioned and have demonstrated 1.4-Megajoule capability of infrared light. During the next two years, the control system will be expanded to include automation of target area systems including final optics, target positioners and diagnostics, in preparation for project completion in 2009. Additional capabilities to support fusion ignition shots in a National Ignition Campaign (NIC) beginning in 2010 will include a cryogenic target system, target diagnostics, and integrated experimental shot data analysis with tools for data visualization and archiving. This talk discusses the current status of the control system implementation and discusses the plan to complete the control system on the path to ignition.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 925679
• Report Number(s): UCRL-CONF-234632; TRN: US0803078
• Resource Relation: Journal Volume: 83; Journal Issue: 2-3; Conference: Presented at: Sixth IAEA Technical Meeting on Control, Data Acquisition, and Remote Participation for Fusion Research, Inuyama, Japan, Jun 04 - Jun 08, 2007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS//MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING, AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
AMPLIFIERS
AUTOMATION
COMPUTER NETWORKS
COMPUTERS
CONSTRUCTION
CONTROL SYSTEMS
CRYOGENICS
DATA ACQUISITION
DATA ANALYSIS
IAEA
IGNITION
IMPLEMENTATION
INERTIAL CONFINEMENT
LASERS
OPTICS
TARGET CHAMBERS
TARGETS
US NATIONAL IGNITION FACILITY