We have analyzed the availability and reliability of the flashlamp-pumped, Nd:glass amplifiers that, as a part of a laser now being designed for future experiments, in inertial confinement fusion (ICF), will be used in the National Ignition Facility (NIF). Clearly, in order for large ICF systems such as the NIF to operate effectively as a whole, all components must meet demanding availability and reliability requirements. Accordingly, the NIF amplifiers can achieve high reliability and availability by using reliable parts, and by using a cassette-based maintenance design that allows most key amplifier parts to be replaced within a few hours. In this way, parts that degrade slowly-- as the laser slabs, silver reflectors, and blastshields can be expected to do, based on previous experience--can be replaced either between shots or during scheduled maintenance periods, with no effect on availability or reliability. In contrast, parts that fail rapidly--such as the flashlamps--can and do cause unavailability or unreliability. Our analysis demonstrates that the amplifiers for the NIF will meet availability and reliability goals, respectively, of 99.8% and 99.4%, provided that the 7680 NIF flashlamps in NIF have failure rates of less than, or equal to, those experienced on Nova, a 5000-lamp laser at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Date Published: 8 December 1997
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 3047, Solid State Lasers for Application to Inertial Confinement Fusion: Second Annual International Conference, (8 December 1997); doi: 10.1117/12.294297

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 3047:
Solid State Lasers for Application to Inertial Confinement Fusion: Second Annual International Conference
Michel L. Andre, Editor(s)