New Fusion Facility (broadcast Friday, June 5th, 2009)

The interior of the NIF target chamber. courtesy of Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and the Department of Energy.

Last week, researchers at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory dedicated the National Ignition Facility, a new fusion research facility in California. The lab, a $3.5 billion facility, hopes to use an assembly of 192 high powered lasers to bombard a BB-sized pellet containing hydrogen isotopes to the point of fusion, creating helium and releasing energy. If all goes according to plan, the facility will achieve ignition, releasing more energy than was pumped into the system to achieve fusion. We'll talk with the lab's director about the facility and what its researchers hope to achieve.