Beyond Ignition

Over millennia, humanity has mastered fire, wind, steam and even the atom to fuel its progress. Now, we stand on the brink of the next monumental leap: fusion.At the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a team of scientists and engineers has been working tirelessly to achieve Fusion Ignition, an achievement that could redefine energy as we know it. The road has been long and filled with challenges, but the promise of unlocking the energy that powers the stars is within reach.As we revisit the groundbreaking efforts at NIF, the question remains: Can they overcome the final hurdles to create a fusion breakthrough, and what will that mean for the future of power on Earth?---Big Ideas Lab is a Mission.org original series. Executive Produced and Written by Lacey Peace. Sound Design, Music Edit and Mix by Daniel Brunelle. Story Editing by Daniel Brunelle. Audio Engineering and Editing by Matthew Powell. Narrated by Matthew Powell. Video Production by Levi Hanusch. Guests featured in this episode (in order of appearance): Kim Budil, Director of LLNLMichael Stadermann, Program Manager for Target Fabrication at LLNLTeresa Bailey, Associate Program Director for LLNL's Computational Physics in the Weapons Simulation and Computing TeamTayyab Suratwala, Program Director for LLNL’s Optics and Materials Science and Technology TeamRichard Town, Associate Program Director for Inertial Confinement Fusion Science at LLNLJean-Michel Di Nicola, Program Co-Director for Laser Science and System Engineering at LLNLKelly Hahn, Experimental Physicist and Diagnostician at LLNLBrought to you in partnership with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.