The Need for the National Ignition Facility

This paper has an attitude - that the National Ignition Facility (NIF) is needed. The NIF will be unique in its ability to address high energy density physics and to test fusion ignition in the laboratory. This is a major scientific step and has high appeal to scientists and engineers. The reason for taking this step now is the importance of high energy density physics for US policy on nuclear weapons. The fact that the same capability and experiments give the most fundamental information on the potential of inertial fusion for commercial energy, and have value for applications in astrophysics, further supports the case for proceeding with this facility.