LLNL, Livermore, California, USA
The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is the world's largest and most energetic laser experimental facility with 192 beams capable of delivering 1.8 megajoules and 500-terawatts of ultraviolet light to a target. Officially commissioned as an operational facility on March 21, 2009, NIF is expected to conduct research experiments thru 2039. The 30-year lifespan of the control system presents several challenges in meeting reliability, availability, and maintainability (RAM) expectations. As NIF continues to expand on its experimental capabilities, the control system's software base of 3.5 million lines of code grows with most of the legacy software still in operational use. Supporting this software is further complicated by technology life cycles and turnover of senior experienced staff. This talk will present lessons learned and new initiatives related to technology refreshes, risk mitigation, and changes to our software development and test methodology to ensure high control system availability for supporting experiments throughout NIF's lifetime.
LLNL-ABS-727374
