This BLOG is for LLNL present and past employees, friends of LLNL and anyone impacted by the privatization of the Lab to express their opinions and expose the waste, wrongdoing and any kind of injustice against employees and taxpayers by LLNS/DOE/NNSA.
The opinions stated are personal opinions. Therefore,
The BLOG author may or may not agree with them before making the decision to post them.
Comments not conforming to BLOG rules are deleted.
Blog author serves as a moderator.
For new topics or suggestions, email jlscoob5@gmail.com
Blog rules
Stay on topic.
No profanity, threatening language, pornography.
NO NAME CALLING.
No political debate.
Posts and comments are posted several times a day.
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
ICF review this summer?
Is anyone aware of the big ICF review this summer? Supposedly it's going to decide the future of the program. Usual suspects from Omega, Z, and NIF.
19 comments:
Anonymous
said...
The panel conclusion will be: ICF is making great progress, new sane people are in charge at the NIF and Moses is gone, groundbreaking experiments at NIF and Z are reinvigorating the field, and look how close they are! Keep the money flowing, all three key lab directors think you should and we do too.
There was a big whoop-tee-do ICF/HED Program Review at the Forrestal Building last month from May 18-20. Lots of names that people on this list would recognize. Lots of presentations given. Lots of plans outlined; "deep dives" will now happen and there will be subcommittees writing reports. Lots of vu-graphs shown, including one that begins with, "Progress toward ignition" and, then, at the bottom, says, "You are performing a valuable service to the program and to the Nation..." A workshop is now planned in spring 2016. Keep the money coming.
Someone should have played the Peggy Lee song "Is That All There Is?" at the meeting. For you Livermore people, Peggy Lee is a famous singer from the 50's. Google it after your bike ride today.
I still can't understand how the NIF EOS stuff persists after all the blatant fabrication (See Ta phase transition at 3 Mbar).
As Vic Reis said, it is day in and day out safety and security incidents and LANL. I do not know when he said that, I do not know if he said that, no I know has ever heard Vic Reis say, and it doe not sound like Reis that but nonetheless we must say he said that. It is ironic since Vic Reis actually seems to be a very strong supporter of LANL and said that the the prioritization of the LANL and the labs in general is "an experiment that has been tried and failed." He sounds like one of the good guys.
Today I looked at all the abject garbage being published by the NIF people - diamond ablators, thinner high-foot capsules, thinner tents, rugby holoraums, picket temperature drive, etc. They probably have another 50 years of doing this excrement.
They probably have another 50 years of doing this excrement. June 15, 2015 at 6:04 PM
That is exactly the point!!! The worst disaster that could befall the national ICF program is for anyone to reach ignition and breakeven, however that is defined. It has to always remain 5 years away, just out of reach.
Today I looked at all the abject garbage being published by the NIF people - diamond ablators, thinner high-foot capsules, thinner tents, rugby holoraums, picket temperature drive, etc. They probably have another 50 years of doing this excrement.
Last I checked the Omega gang thought that indirect drive (i.e. holhraums) would fail and fault the NIF program for not pursuing a joint direct/indirect drive effort. But they know they're in bed with us so they can't complain so much.
Unfortunately, the modifications to NIF to be able to field a successful direct drive campaign at 1 ~ 2 MJ in the UV are prohibitively expensive. Most of the beam ports have to be moved on the target chamber (for symmetry reasons), 192 new frequency tripling crystals at the 40 x 40 cm aperture are required (to be used with the existing 384 doublers and triplers), a significantly modified laser oscillator system (front-end) required to provide >300 GHz of spectral bandwidth at the 1 micron fundamental (> 1 THz in the UV), new continuous phase plates for much larger and flatter focal spots, etc...The compromise is called Polar Direct Drive, which could be fielded on the existing NIF (for $50 M ?), but in my opinion would not likely work any better than the current indirect drive approach, due to LPI and hydro instabilities at the target interface. Besides I don't think we know how to field "cryo" targets in true direct drive.
And countless billions more to spend. Direct drive has a set of problems, but different ones from what indirect drive faces. Maybe they are easier to solve, maybe not. But if there is a winner (it is not clear there is any path to ICF ignition and gain that does not use a nuclear bomb as a driver), it will probably be whatever is easiest to diagnose and tune, and that is probably not indirect drive.
19 comments:
The panel conclusion will be: ICF is making great progress, new sane people are in charge at the NIF and Moses is gone, groundbreaking experiments at NIF and Z are reinvigorating the field, and look how close they are! Keep the money flowing, all three key lab directors think you should and we do too.
There was a big whoop-tee-do ICF/HED Program Review at the Forrestal Building last month from May 18-20. Lots of names that people on this list would recognize. Lots of presentations given. Lots of plans outlined; "deep dives" will now happen and there will be subcommittees writing reports. Lots of vu-graphs shown, including one that begins with, "Progress toward ignition" and, then, at the bottom, says, "You are performing a valuable service to the program and to the Nation..." A workshop is now planned in spring 2016. Keep the money coming.
Did Dr. Vic Reis show up with his laser pointer stating, "who say's lasers don't work"?
No, but he did say something about the same old day-in and day-out safety and security issues at LANL.
Let's see how long it takes for the guy that sleeps with Reis to complain about why everyone is picking on his sweatheart Viccy.
Reis is a has been.
Someone should have played the Peggy Lee song "Is That All There Is?" at the meeting. For you Livermore people, Peggy Lee is a famous singer from the 50's. Google it after your bike ride today.
I still can't understand how the NIF EOS stuff persists after all the blatant fabrication (See Ta phase transition at 3 Mbar).
As Vic Reis said, it is day in and day out safety and security incidents and LANL. I do not know when he said that, I do not know if he said that, no I know has ever heard Vic Reis say, and it doe not sound like Reis that but nonetheless we must say he said that. It is ironic since Vic Reis actually seems to be a very strong supporter of LANL and said that the the prioritization of the LANL and the labs in general is "an experiment that has been tried and failed." He sounds like one of the good guys.
Today I looked at all the abject garbage being published by the NIF people - diamond ablators, thinner high-foot capsules, thinner tents, rugby holoraums, picket temperature drive, etc. They probably have another 50 years of doing this excrement.
They probably have another 50 years of doing this excrement.
June 15, 2015 at 6:04 PM
That is exactly the point!!! The worst disaster that could befall the national ICF program is for anyone to reach ignition and breakeven, however that is defined. It has to always remain 5 years away, just out of reach.
Today I looked at all the abject garbage being published by the NIF people - diamond ablators, thinner high-foot capsules, thinner tents, rugby holoraums, picket temperature drive, etc. They probably have another 50 years of doing this excrement.
June 15, 2015 at 6:04 PM
And who are you to judge?
And who are you to judge?
June 15, 2015 at 7:43 PM
Is that how the NIF people respond to the people that review their painfully stupid and irrelevant articles?
NIF publications appear to be reviewed by sycophants that wouldn't be able to teach a high school science class.
I suspect that the NIF people have their papers reviewed by the Omega gang, and visa versa. Total circle jerk.
Last I checked the Omega gang thought that indirect drive (i.e. holhraums) would fail and fault the NIF program for not pursuing a joint direct/indirect drive effort. But they know they're in bed with us so they can't complain so much.
Well, it looks like the Omega gang was right on the money! They called it, and data proves it; NIF hohlraums suck, not ignite. Go, Rochester!
Unfortunately, the modifications to NIF to be able to field a successful direct drive campaign at 1 ~ 2 MJ in the UV are prohibitively expensive. Most of the beam ports have to be moved on the target chamber (for symmetry reasons), 192 new frequency tripling crystals at the 40 x 40 cm aperture are required (to be used with the existing 384 doublers and triplers), a significantly modified laser oscillator system (front-end) required to provide >300 GHz of spectral bandwidth at the 1 micron fundamental (> 1 THz in the UV), new continuous phase plates for much larger and flatter focal spots, etc...The compromise is called Polar Direct Drive, which could be fielded on the existing NIF (for $50 M ?), but in my opinion would not likely work any better than the current indirect drive approach, due to LPI and hydro instabilities at the target interface. Besides I don't think we know how to field "cryo" targets in true direct drive.
And countless billions more to spend. Direct drive has a set of problems, but different ones from what indirect drive faces. Maybe they are easier to solve, maybe not. But if there is a winner (it is not clear there is any path to ICF ignition and gain that does not use a nuclear bomb as a driver), it will probably be whatever is easiest to diagnose and tune, and that is probably not indirect drive.
Fusion: Mad Science
Post a Comment