Annual calls will be issued by the NIF User Office on behalf of the NIF Director for proposals for DLI experimental campaigns. The call will be published in early December with notification of awards to successful proposers in early-to-mid Spring. This will support scheduling the awarded DLI shot opportunities with compatible main-chamber experiments during the schedule process that takes place in the Spring for the coming government fiscal year. It is envisioned that most, if not all, of the NIF DLI shots will occur as ride-along experiments on shots to the main Target Chamber that will have priority during execution of the DLI experiment. All proposed DLI experiments, including the test object, must go through the standard NIF reviews. The NIF senior management team and the NSA Team shall determine the allocation of DLI experiments to be supported in a fiscal year.
DLI experiments, including the test object, must go through the standard NIF reviews. The NIF senior management team and the NSA Team shall determine the allocation of DLI experiments to be supported in a fiscal year.
It will be possible for users to request a dedicated DLI experiment where the DLI shot has priority over the main chamber experiment. To request such a shot, the user will propose the dedicated DLI experiment to the National Security Applications call for proposals that is issued by the NIF User Office annually in August. It is assumed that awards of the NSA program time for dedicated DLI experiments will be very rare and DLI users will propose primarily through the DLI call for proposals.
A typical schedule would have one shot planned for any given day for a user campaign. The system was designed to support 3 shots per standard NIF shot day, and in some circumstances 4 shots per standard NIF shot day. However, DLI experiments will primarily be scheduled as ridealong experiments on a concurrently scheduled NIF main chamber experiment. The rate at which DLI shots will be performed will depend on the complexity of the DLI setup and the opportunities for appropriate main-chamber experiments on which the DLI experiment will ride along. In the early stages of fully commissioned DLI system operations, DLI experiments will likely be scheduled at a rate of no more than one per month.
All submitted DLI proposals are reviewed for scientific merit and program impact by panels of internal and external experts. Key elements of the proposal are:
- Mission Impact—Description of how the experiment will address critical questions, a timeline for addressing these questions, and decision points that are affected by the proposed experiments.
- Scientific discussion—Description of the purpose for the proposed experiment, the key scientific questions addressed, the proposed experimental method, the desired experimental platform, and the expected results.
- Scientific team—Descriptions of the researchers involved in the proposed concept development.
- Required capabilities and resources—A short estimate of the capabilities and resources required within and external to NIF to execute the experiment.
Proposals submitted to the NSA program call for dedicated DLI time will also need to present a modeling and simulation plan that will both guide and benefit from the awarded DLI shot time.
Part of the DLI proposal review is an evaluation by facility stakeholders of the readiness and capability by NIF staff to support the shots. The chair of the review committee summarizes the recommendations for each proposal in a report and sends the report to the NSA Program Director and the NIF Director. The principal investigator will receive a written notification from the NIF Director (sent by the NIF User Office) of the proposal evaluation and decision.
