Livermore Operations Team Offers Major OMEGA Support

October 31, 2008

The word “team” usually conjures up the image of a large group of people working together to meet major milestones, but a National Security Technologies (NSTec) Livermore Operations (LO) team of four is proving that big things can come in small packages.

Over the past year, an LO team has been an integral part of cooperative efforts with the experimental and analysis team working on National Science Campaign (NSC) 4 and 10 Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) experiments on OMEGA – one of the major United States high-power laser facilities.

The primary team member, James Tellinghuisen, Electro-Mechanical Technician, is the only team member deployed to the Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE), at the University of Rochester, in Rochester, New York. The three additional team members are Zaheer Ali, Scientist/Physicist, LO, Kevin Loughman, Supervisor, OMEGA Diagnostics, Development, and Support, deployed to Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL), and Kathleen Garcia, Administrative Assistant, who is responsible for supporting work at both LO and LLNL.

According to Ali, “Our scientists, engineers, and technicians support experiments to verify magneto hydrodynamic code, develop Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) targets, investigate material properties at extreme energy densities, as well as helping to develop, implement, and operate diagnostics for high energy density science.” Recently, NSTec even supported the commissioning of the new OMEGA Extended Performance (EP) laser system, a joint laser system designed to integrate emerging high energy short pulse laser technology with existing long pulse technology.

NSTec scientists and technicians have also been involved with the new neutron, hard x-ray, and Electro-Magnetic Pulse (EMP) diagnostics fielded on OMEGA EP. Additionally, NSTec engineers calibrate and support mission critical diagnostics on OMEGA such as the x-ray spectrometers, DANTE, HENWAY, as well as x-ray framing cameras, and streak camera systems.

When asked about recent accomplishments supporting LLNL at LLE, Loughman commented that, “LO provided critical, one-month priority turnaround to complete the OMEGA High-Resolution Velocimeter (OHRV) diagnostic, which had been shipped incomplete. James (Tellinghuisen) and a prior team member, Michael Brodowski, worked diligently to ensure the diagnostic was operational so LLE could proceed with an experiment. If our folks had not stepped up to the plate, LLE would have had to postpone the experiment.”

The LO team continues to serve LLNL/LLE above and beyond the call of duty, including Tellinghuisen providing crucial day-to-day interface and support, Ali frequently “commuting” to LLE, Loughman providing coordination and oversight, plus Garcia contributing to overall operational/administration continuity, all to ensure that experiments go off without a hitch and each milestone is achieved.