Fielding the NIF Cryogenic Ignition Target

The United States Department of Energy has embarked on a campaign to conduct credible fusion ignition experiments on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 2010. The target assembly specified for this campaign requires the formation of a deuterium/tritium (DT) fuel ice layer on the inside of a 2 millimeter diameter capsule positioned at the center of a 9 millimeter long by 5 millimeter diameter cylinder, called a hohlraum. The ice layer requires micrometer level accuracy and must be formed and maintained at temperatures below 19 K. At NIF shot time, the target must be positioned at the center of the NIF 10 meter diameter target chamber, aligned to the laser beam lines and held stable to less than 7 micrometers rms. We have completed the final design and are integrating the systems necessary to create, characterize and field the cryogenic target for ignition experiments. These designs, with emphasis on the challenges of fielding a precision cryogenic positioning system will be presented

Lawson criterion for ignition exceeded in an inertial fusion experiment

For more than half a century, researchers around the world have been engaged in attempts to achieve fusion ignition as a proof of principle of various fusion concepts. Following the Lawson criterion, an ignited plasma is one where the fusion heating power is high enough to overcome all the physical processes that cool the fusion plasma, creating a positive thermodynamic feedback loop with rapidly increasing temperature. In inertially confined fusion, ignition is a state where the fusion plasma can begin "burn propagation" into surrounding cold fuel, enabling the possibility of high energy gain. While "scientific breakeven" (i.e., unity target gain) has not yet been achieved (here target gain is 0.72, 1.37 MJ of fusion for 1.92 MJ of laser energy), this Letter reports the first controlled fusion experiment, using laser indirect drive, on the National Ignition Facility to produce capsule gain (here 5.8) and reach ignition by nine different formulations of the Lawson criterion

Single Rapamycin Administration Induces Prolonged Downward Shift in Defended Body Weight in Rats

Manipulation of body weight set point may be an effective weight loss and maintenance strategy as the homeostatic mechanism governing energy balance remains intact even in obese conditions and counters the effort to lose weight. However, how the set point is determined is not well understood. We show that a single injection of rapamycin (RAP), an mTOR inhibitor, is sufficient to shift the set point in rats. Intraperitoneal RAP decreased food intake and daily weight gain for several days, but surprisingly, there was also a long-term reduction in body weight which lasted at least 10 weeks without additional RAP injection. These effects were not due to malaise or glucose intolerance. Two RAP administrations with a two week interval had additive effects on body weight without desensitization and significantly reduced the white adipose tissue weight. When challenged with food deprivation, vehicle and RAP-treated rats responded with rebound hyperphagia, suggesting that RAP was not inhibiting compensatory responses to weight loss. Instead, RAP animals defended a lower body weight achieved after RAP treatment. Decreased food intake and body weight were also seen with intracerebroventricular injection of RAP, indicating that the RAP effect is at least partially mediated by the brain. In summary, we found a novel effect of RAP that maintains lower body weight by shifting the set point long-term. Thus, RAP and related compounds may be unique tools to investigate the mechanisms by which the defended level of body weight is determined; such compounds may also be used to complement weight loss strategy