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The Stockpile Stewardship Program is an initiative to maintain the nuclear deterrent of the United States in the post-Cold War era. It is based on the maintenance of our stockpile through an ongoing process of surveillance, assessment, refurbishment, and recertification, without nuclear testing. At the heart of the SSP is an attempt to bring advanced experimental and computational tools to bear on the evaluation and certification of the stockpile itself; these advanced scientific capabilities are necessary because of the cessation of nuclear testing. This science-based approach requires new tools: advanced computers for more detailed 3-D simulations, multi-axis hydrodynamic facilities and plutonium research facilities for physics measurements of primaries, and the National Ignition Facility for fusion burn and high-energy-density science. The science basis requires summing up the pieces we can measure and simulate, which cannot be done without a complete set of tools. Refurbishing weapons with confidence, without testing, is a difficult challenge. Only with high-quality scientists and a complete set of tools, can the US accomplish this program. NIF is a unique element of the Stockpile Stewardship Program because it is the only facility that will allow the experimental study of thermonuclear burn and important regimes of high-energy-density science. Understanding …

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) will have many uses besides its primary mission in the US Department of Energy's Stockpile Stewardship Program. It will provide a broad array of applications to basic science, and will also play an important role in the development of commercial fusion energy.