Main Amplifier Power Conditioning for the National Ignition Facility

The National Ignition Facility (NIF), being built at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) will utilize a 1.8 MJ glass laser to study inertial confinement fusion. This laser will be driven by a power conditioning system which must simultaneously deliver over 260 MJ of electrical energy to the nearly 7700 flashlamps. The power conditioning system is divided into independent modules that store, shape and deliver pulses of energy to the flashlamps.

The NIF power conditioning system which is being designed and built by Sandia National Laboratory (SNL) in collaboration with LLNL and industrial partners, is a different architecture from any laser power conditioning system previously built at LLNL. This particular design architecture was chosen as the most cost-effective way to reliably deliver the large amount of energy needed for NIF.

This paper will describe the development and design of the NIF power conditioning system. It will discuss the design objectives as well as the key design issues and technical hurdles that are being addressed in an ongoing component development and system validation program being supported by both SNL and LLNL.