The chief scientist for the National Nuclear Security Administration within the United States Department of Energy is scheduled to speak at Missouri University of Science and Technology on Sept. 2.

Dr. David H. Crandall will present “Progress at the National Ignition Facility: Prospects for Science and Energy through Inertial Confinement Fusion,” from 3:45-5:15 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 2, in Room 104 of the Physics Building on Missouri S&T’s campus. The presentation is open to the public.

Crandall will discuss inertial confinement fusion (ICF), a concept that has evolved since the 1960s for creating a miniature nuclear explosion in a laboratory as a method of controlled release of nuclear energy through fusion. Nuclear weapon designers came up with the concept to tame nuclear explosions so that they could conduct them repeatedly in a laboratory environment.

The first pure fusion ignition event, creating more fusion energy out of the target than compression energy into it, may be achieved within a year at the National Ignition Facility in Livermore, Calif.
Called “the internal combustion engine of the 21st century,” fusion ignition could provide new ways to perform science and provide industrial energy. Crandall will discuss the potential for adapting this new capability to astrophysical experiments and commercial fusion energy.

Crandall has been with the DOE in Washington, D.C., since 1983. He served as branch chief and division director in the Fusion Energy Program within the Office of Energy Research. In 1995, he joined the Office of Defense Programs, where he served as director of the offices of the National Ignition Facility, Inertial Fusion, and Defense Sciences. He then took the position of assistant deputy administrator for research development and simulation before becoming chief scientist. He is a recipient of the Presidential Award of Meritorious Executive within the Senior Executive Service.

The lecture is sponsored by Missouri S&T’s physics department. You can view the presentation here.