1.1. National Ignition Facility and Users

Mission and Users of the National Ignition Facility

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is an operational multi-megajoule laser facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in Livermore, CA. In March 2009, the construction of NIF was completed and it entered into full operations. NIF was constructed by the Department of Energy (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to execute high-energy-density science experiments in support of the U.S. Stockpile Stewardship Program (SSP), the DOE’s energy and fundamental science missions, and the Department of Defense (DOD) and other federal offices and agencies. NIF is operated as a national and international user facility to support this range of missions and associated national laboratories, academics, and private sector user communities.

Users of NIF include researchers from the NNSA and Office of Science national laboratories, other federal agencies, academia, the private sector,  and the international scientific community. This user manual is intended to provide sufficient information to allow researchers to become familiar with NIF and develop preliminary plans for NIF experiments. It also provides references to further information to support detailed experiment planning.

Much of this information is also available on the NIF Users portion of the NIF website:

NIF Users