National Ignition Campaign
$395,000,000

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (CA) requests $395,000,000 for:
Department of Energy
Washington, DC

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Summary

The National Ignition Campaign (NIC) is a national science and technology effort within the U.S. Inertial Confinement Fusion community to achieve ignition in the laboratory for the first time in world history. The National Ignition Campaign is scheduled to initiate ignition experiments in 2010 at the National Ignition Facility, a 192-laser beam facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The Campaign is comprised of several simultaneous research and development activities to support the goal of achieving ignition in the laboratory. NIC funds development of experiment support technologies (optics, diagnostics and cryogenics), facility operations and target production for NIC experiments, research and development and advanced computation simulations to export experiments and design efforts. This funding will bolster the National Ignition Campaign's plan for a credible ignition attempt. This is a valuable use of taxpayer funds because the Campaign will provide the scientific understanding to assess the safety, security, and reliability of the nation's nuclear weapons without nuclear testing.

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