Beautiful spherical object for nuclear fusion

Today i had the opportunity to take a guided tour of the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at the Lawrence-Livermore National Laboratory. This newly completed research facility is home to the world's more powerful laser and was constructed for a very specific purpose: to create the world's first self-sustaining nuclear fusion reaction. At the core of the apparatus lies a large, hollow, and strangely beautiful spherical structure, an object that would not entirely seem out of place if one were to stumble upon it on the playa at Burning Man. This is the NIF's main reaction chamber, where 192 separate high-energy laser beams will enter through points on the sphere surface, and converge with unimaginable precision on a single small pellet of deuterium-tritium 'fuel' placed at the exact center. This in theory will trigger ('ignite') a fusion reaction, in effect creating a tiny little star for a brief moment. Imagine the NIF as a giant, $4 billion dollar zippo lighter.

Of course, after taking a look inside of the thing, the first thing i thought was "I wonder if you could put a bunch of speakers in it and re-purpose it for 3D sound?" The chamber interior walls were actually covered with something that looked to me like Sonex, the stuff recording studios use to deaden sound reflections. In fact, the material was designed to eliminate light reflections, as our tour guide explained. So this thing actually was an anechoic chamber, but one that was free of light-echos. In a 'deep thoughts' kinda moment, i realized something rather interesting-- that this ignition chamber's primary purpose is to focus light waves in a very specific and phase-controlled manner, using laser 'transducers'. In an Ambisonic array, you are focusing sound waves in a very specific and phase-controlled manner, using speakers as the transducers. however, the subjective experience of sitting in the 'sweet spot' of the NIF could prove to be....intense.





Some photos: