Recent simulations and experiments on Nova indicate that some level of smoothing may be required to suppress filamentation in plasmas on the National Ignition Facility (NIF), resulting in the addition of 1-D smoothing capability to the current baseline design. Control of stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) and filamentation is considered essential to the success of laser fusion because they affect the amount and location of laser energy delivered to the x-ray conversion region (hohlraum wall) for indirect drive and to the absorptive region for direct drive, Smoothing by spectral dispersion (SSD)[1], reduces these instabilities by reducing nonuniformities in the focal irradiance when averaged over a finite time interval. We have installed SSD on Nova to produce beam smoothing on all 10 beam lines. A single dispersion grating is located in a position common to all 10 beam lines early in the preamplifier chain. This location limits the 1{omega} bandwidth to 2.2 {angstrom} with sufficient dispersion to displace the speckle field of each frequency component at the target plane by one half speckle diameter. Several beam lines were modified to allow orientation of the dispersion on each arm relative to the hohlraum wall. After conversion to the third harmonic the beam passes …

Underground spills of volatile hydrocarbons are often difficult to clean up, especially if the contaminants are present in or below the water table as a separate liquid-organic phase. Excavating and treating the contaminated soil may not be practical or even possible if the affected zone is relatively deep. Merely pumping groundwater has proven to be ineffective because huge amounts of water must be flushed through the contaminated area to clean it; even then the contaminants may not be completely removed. Due to the low solubility of most common contaminants, such pump and treat systems can be expected to take decades to centuries to actually clean a site. Today, many sites are required to pump and treat contaminated groundwater even though there is no expectation that the site will be cleaned. In these cases, the pumps simply control the spread of the contaminant, while requiring a continuous flow of money, paperwork, and management attention. Although pump and treat systems are relatively inexpensive to operate, they represent along term cost. Most importantly, they rarely remove enough contaminant to change the property`s status. Although a pump and treat system can offer compliance in a regulatory sense, it doesn`t solve the site`s liability problem. …

Experimental work with organic solvents at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has suggested that in situ thermal oxidation of these compounds via hydrous pyrolysis forms the basis for a whole new remediation method, called hydrous pyrolysis oxidation. Preliminary results of hydrothermal oxidation using both dissolved 0{sub 2} gas and mineral oxidants present naturally in soils (e.g., MnO{sub 2}) demonstrate that TCE, TCA, and even PCE can be rapidly and completely degraded to benign products at moderate conditions, easily achieved in thermal remediation. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHS) have an even larger thermodynamic driving force favoring oxidation, and they are also amenable to in situ destruction. Today, the principal treatment methods for chlorinated solvent- and PAH-contaminated soil are to remove it to landfills, or incinerate it on site. The most effective method for treating ground water, Dynamic Underground Stripping (Newmark et al., 1995), still involves removing the contaminant for destruction elsewhere. Hydrous pyrolysis/oxidation would eliminate the need for long-term use of expensive treatment facilities by converting all remaining contaminant to benign products (e.g., carbon dioxide, water, and chloride ion). The technique is expected to be applicable to dense non-aqueous phase liquids (DNAPLS) and dissolved organic components. Soil and ground water would be polished …

We recently demonstrated the production of over a petawatt of peak power in the Nova/Petawatt Laser Facility, generating > 600 J in {approximately} 440 fs. The Petawatt Laser Project was initiated to develop the capability to test the fast ignitor concept for inertial confinement fusion (ICF), and to provide a unique capability in high energy density physics. The laser was designed to produce near kJ pulses with a pulse duration adjustable between 0.5 and 20 ps. At the shortest pulse lengths, this laser is expected to surpass 10 21 W/cm 2 when focused later this year. Currently, this system is limited to 600 J pulses in a 46.3-cm beam. Expansion of the beam to 58 cm, with the installation of 94-cm gratings, will enable 1 kJ operation. Target experiments with petawatt pulses will be possible either integrated with Nova in the 10 beam target chamber or as a stand alone system in an independent, dedicated chamber. Focusing the beam onto a target will be accomplished using an on axis parabolic mirror. The design of a novel targeting system enabling the production of ultrahigh contrast pulses and an easily variable effective focal length is also described.