MOCOBAB07
LLNL, Livermore, California, USA
The National Ignition Facility (NIF) at LLNL is a 2.0 Mega joule laser with ~100,000 control points managed by ~2,000 networked computers. The installation of the controls system began in 2002 with prototype controls for one quad. By 2004 the controls system build-out began and over the next 6 years the remainder was installed and activated. The NIF has now transitioned to a user facility with a 30 year operational lifespan. As with many large, long duration projects the controls system diversity has created maintenance issues and components have reached end-of-life. This requires the controls team to develop and execute a controls hardware refresh cycle to replace aging components before reliability issues interfere with facility operations. This refresh also affects the controls system software since modernization of controls hardware and operating system require corresponding software changes and possibly coding language changes. This talk addresses the NIF controls system maintenance and refresh strategy, including plans to evolve towards a more homogenous controls posture, and also discusses the extended schedule required to transition to the new platform base.
LLNL, Livermore, California, USA
The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is operated by the Integrated Computer Control System in an object-oriented, CORBA-based system distributed among over 1800 front-end processors, embedded controllers and supervisory servers. At present, NIF operates 24x7 and conducts a variety of fusion, high energy density and basic science experiments. During the past year, the control system was expanded to include a variety of new diagnostic systems, and programmable laser beam shaping and parallel shot automation for more efficient shot operations. The system is also currently being expanded with an Advanced Radiographic Capability, which will provide short (<10 picoseconds) ultra-high power (>1 Petawatt) laser pulses that will be used for a variety of diagnostic and experimental capabilities. Additional tools have been developed to support experimental planning, experimental setup, facility configuration and post shot analysis, using open-source software, commercial workflow tools, database and messaging technologies. This talk discusses the current status of the control and information systems to support a wide variety of experiments being conducted on NIF including ignition experiments.