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 of 500-terawatt ultraviolet laser energy to a target. The energy, temperatures and pressures capable of being generated on the NIF allow scientists the ability to generate conditions similar to the center of the sun and explore the physics of planetary interiors, supernovae, black holes and thermonuclear burn. This year concludes a very successful multi-year plan of optimizations to the control & information systems and operational processes to increase the quantity of experimental target shots conducted in the facility. In addition, many new system control and diagnostic capabilities have been commissioned for operational use to maximize the scientific value produced. With NIF expecting to be operational for greater than 20 years focus has also been placed on optimizing the software processes to improve the sustainability of the control system. This talk will report on the current status of each of these areas in support of the wide variety of experiments being conducted in the facility.
Release No.: LLNL-ABS-727237-DRAFT
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