Absolute measurement of the DT primary neutron yield on the National Ignition Facility

¹ Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM 87185, USA
² Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550, USA
³ Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
⁴ General Atomics, San Diego, CA 92186, USA
⁵ University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA
⁶ University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, USA
⁷ State University of New York-Geneseo, Geneseo, NY 14454, USA

^a e-mail: rjleepe@sandia.gov

Published online: 15 November 2013

Abstract

The measurement of the absolute neutron yield produced in inertial confinement fusion target experiments conducted on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) is essential in benchmarking progress towards the goal of achieving ignition on this facility. This paper describes three independent diagnostic techniques that have been developed to make accurate and precise DT neutron yield measurements on the NIF.