The University of Rochester<\/a>\u2019s Laboratory for Laser Energetics<\/a> (LLE) is one of only several facilities in the world where scientists are studying laser-driven inertial confinement fusion (ICF) for national security purposes and to harvest energy from nuclear fusion. Fusion, which powers the sun, has long been a component of maintaining the nuclear deterrent and is viewed as an ideal potential energy-production mechanism.<\/p>\n In an ICF experiment, a small amount of fuel consisting of hydrogen isotopes, deuterium (D) and tritium (T), is compressed and heated to temperatures greater than the center of stars. When these conditions are achieved, the fuel undergoes fusion, releasing enormous energy. The nature of ICF makes it challenging to study experimentally. But advances in high-performance computing are giving University researchers and LLE scientists a crucial technological edge.<\/p>\n \u201cA new supercomputer housed at the University will make it possible for researchers to simulate complex high-energy-density phenomena in ICF in three dimensions with unprecedented details,\u201d says Valeri Goncharov<\/a>, Theory Division Director and a distinguished scientist at LLE. \u201cFor example, the evolution of micron-size target defects in an implosion is very difficult, if not impossible, to measure directly. Detailed 3D simulations, however, can model how this phenomenon can change the experimental observables that are much easier to measure. Finding correlations between simulation results and experimental data will help in identifying the importance of subscale target features and other complicated physics effects in our experiments.\u201d<\/p>\n