Status of the NIF power conditioning system

The NIF Power Conditioning System provides the pulsed excitation required to drive flashlamps in the laser’s optical amplifiers. Modular in design, each of the 192 Main Energy Storage Modules (MESMs) storage up to 2.2 MJ of electrical energy in its capacitor bank before delivering the energy to 20 pairs of flashlamps in a 400 μs pulse (10% power points). The peak current of each MESM discharge is 0.5 MA. Production, installation, commissioning and operation of the NIF Power Conditioning continue to progress rapidly, with the goals of completing accelerated production in late 2007 and finishing commissioning by early 2008, all the while maintaining an aggressive operations schedule. To date, more than 80% of the required modules have been assembled, shipped and installed in the facility, representing more that 240 MJ of stored energy available for driving NIF flashlamps. The MESMs have displayed outstanding reliability during daily, multiple-shift operations.