The National Ignition Facility (NIF) i,ii at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is a 192 beam, 1.8 MJ 0.35 µm laser designed to drive inertial confinement fusion (ICF) capsules to ignition iii. NIF was formally dedicated in May 2009. The National Ignition Campaign, a collaborative research undertaking by LLNL, LLE, LANL, GA, and SNL, has a goal of achieving a robust burning plasma by the end of 2012. In the indirect-drive approach iv , the laser energy is converted to thermal x-rays inside a high Z cavity (hohlraum). The x rays then ablate the outer layers of a DT-filled capsule placed at the center of the hohlraum, causing the capsule to implode, compress and heat the DT and ignite.