Target Omega


Book Description

A propulsive, high-stakes debut thriller where one extraordinary operator holds the key to saving the world from Armageddon. All he needs to do is stay alive. Buried deep in the US defense and special forces architecture is an elite, ultra-black unit, created expressly to prevent weapons of mass destruction from falling into the hands of terrorists and rogue regimes. Their covert, surgical strikes eliminate grave threats so the rest of America can sleep without fear. Until now. After returning from a successful operation in Pakistan, the entire team is assassinated within forty-eight hours. Only their leader, Michael Garin, survives. As the sole survivor and chief suspect of the attack, Garin finds himself on the run from Iranian intelligence operatives bent on tracking and killing him. Even Garin’s own government appears to have turned against him, sending a lethal sniper from the vaunted Delta Force to eliminate the threat they think he’s become. With enemies coming at him from every direction, Garin’s fight for survival becomes part of a larger conspiracy unfolding on the world’s stage: a catastrophic attack—precipitated by escalating tensions in the Middle East—that will shift the balance of power and plunge the United States of America into oblivion.




Assessment of Inertial Confinement Fusion Targets


Book Description

In the fall of 2010, the Office of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Secretary for Science asked for a National Research Council (NRC) committee to investigate the prospects for generating power using inertial confinement fusion (ICF) concepts, acknowledging that a key test of viability for this concept-ignition -could be demonstrated at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in the relatively near term. The committee was asked to provide an unclassified report. However, DOE indicated that to fully assess this topic, the committee's deliberations would have to be informed by the results of some classified experiments and information, particularly in the area of ICF targets and nonproliferation. Thus, the Panel on the Assessment of Inertial Confinement Fusion Targets ("the panel") was assembled, composed of experts able to access the needed information. The panel was charged with advising the Committee on the Prospects for Inertial Confinement Fusion Energy Systems on these issues, both by internal discussion and by this unclassified report. A Panel on Fusion Target Physics ("the panel") will serve as a technical resource to the Committee on Inertial Confinement Energy Systems ("the Committee") and will prepare a report that describes the R&D challenges to providing suitable targets, on the basis of parameters established and provided to the Panel by the Committee. The Panel on Fusion Target Physics will prepare a report that will assess the current performance of fusion targets associated with various ICF concepts in order to understand: 1. The spectrum output; 2. The illumination geometry; 3. The high-gain geometry; and 4. The robustness of the target design. The panel addressed the potential impacts of the use and development of current concepts for Inertial Fusion Energy on the proliferation of nuclear weapons information and technology, as appropriate. The Panel examined technology options, but does not provide recommendations specific to any currently operating or proposed ICF facility.






















Energy and Water Development Appropriations for 2006


Book Description




High Energy Density Laboratory Astrophysics


Book Description

During the past several years, research teams around the world have developed astrophysics-relevant utilizing high energy-density facilities such as intense lasers and z-pinches. Research is underway in many areas, such as compressible hydrodynamic mixing, strong shock phenomena, radiation flow, radiative shocks and jets, complex opacities, equations of stat, and relativistic plasmas. Beyond this current research and the papers it is producing, plans are being made for the application, to astrophysics-relevant research, of the 2 MJ National Ignition Facility (NIF) laser at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; the 600 kj Ligne d'Intégration Laser (LIL) and the 2 MJ Laser Mégajoule (LMJ) in Bordeaux, France; petawatt-range lasers now under construction around the world; and current and future Z pinches. The goal of this conference and these proceedings is to continue focusing attention on this emerging research area. The conference brought together different scientists interested in this emerging new field, with topics covering: - Hydrodynamic instabilities in astrophysics, - Supernovae and supernova remnant evolution, - Astrophysical shocks, blast waves, and jets, - Stellar opacities, - Radiation and thermal transport, - Dense plasma atomic physics and EOS, - X-ray photoionized plasmas, - Ultrastrong magnetic field generation.