Media Platforms Design TeamWhat do you do with the world’s biggest, highest-intensity laser system? Well, for starters, you could blast the nuclei of hydrogen atoms and transform their mass into energy in a reaction that rivals the force and temperature of an exploding nuclear warhead. The lasers are at the heart of the National Ignition Facility, a government project in Livermore, Calif., that you may have seen of on the Web this week.some hot shotsBut these brilliant beams are currently undergoing live-fire testing before beginning operations next year, and Popular Mechanics got its hands on these exclusive images of the NIF chamber actually in use. The stadium-size building houses 192 lasers, each producing a 16-in.-wide beam. In less than 1 second, the beams are amplified 3 quadrillion times and then simultaneously focused on a hydrogen-filled ball the size of a BB. NIF’s main mission will be to verify computer models used to modernize U.S. nuclear weapons. Astronomers and fusion-energy researchers are also planning experiments. Here’s how NIF’s target chamber works: Sharpshooter: Tiny targets are placed at the tip of the holder (at right) and blasted by 192 lasers shooting through the round ports in the wall.Energy Burst: The blasted target generates 500 trillion watts—1000 times the electrical generating capacity of the United States.Shutter Speed: The conversion of matter to energy is recorded by multispectrum sensors, including an X-ray camera that takes pictures at 1 billion frames per second. Media Platforms Design TeamThe FODI system is the cornerstore of optic recycling at the National Ignition FacilityMedia Platforms Design TeamDid anyone say laser bay?Media Platforms Design TeamFusion never looked so … angularMedia Platforms Design TeamBigger, badder, more extreme version of pic above.Joe PappalardoJoe Pappalardo is a contributing writer at Popular Mechanics and author of the new book, Spaceport Earth: The Reinvention of Spaceflight.
