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It's June 1999. A giant crane towers over a construction site at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. This isn't just any Crane. It's a 14 story, 900 ton machine once used to lower nuclear weapons for underground testing at the Nevada Test Site. It now has a new helping to construct an experimental facility that ensures the nation's nuclear arsenal remains safe and secure. No testing required. Slowly, the crane begins to lower its monumental payload. A 10 meter diameter 143 ton target chamber. Waiting below is the shell of a building and a team of engineers and technicians, their eyes fixed on the massive sphere as it descends. Every millimeter of the chamber's placement is critical. Nothing could be out of align. When the target chamber finally settled into place, it marked one of the most significant milestones in the construction of the National Ignition Facility, or nif. This chamber would become the heart of nif, an experimental facility unlike anything ever created before. Once operational, NIF would be able to replicate temperatures and pressures found only in the core of stars or during the detonation of nuclear weapons. Conditions critical to advancing science and ensuring the safety and reliability of the nation's nuclear stockpile. But this milestone in 1999 was just one chapter in a much longer story. Year by year, the pieces of NIF came together. In 2000, the facility's main building was completed. By 2003, the laser bay architecture began to take shape. In 2008, the last of the 100, 192 laser beam lines were installed. And in 2009 NIF fired its first large scale experiments. At NIF, every experiment is a masterpiece of precision. The facility is the size of three football fields. And inside, 192 lasers travel a mile through massive beam lines to converge on a whole room containing a 2 millimeter fuel capsule. Their alignment must be flawless, with beams arriving within less than half the width of a human hair of each other. Since 2009, this extraordinary feat of engineering has been repeated more than 5,000 times. And along the way, NIF achieved something once thought impossible. Scientists inside the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory may have achieved something extraordinary. Something they've spent decades trying to do. Fusion ignition. Researchers here at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory fired 192 lasers at a small frozen pellet of hydrogen, generating more energy from the fusion reaction than the energy delivered by the laser. This development is one step closer to a clean energy future. But time takes its toll even on the most finely tuned instruments. At nif, the challenge isn't reinvention, its preservation and the story of how it's done is as extraordinary as the experiments themselves. Welcome to the Big Ideas Lab. Your weekly exploration inside Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Hear untold stories, meet boundary pushing pioneers, and get unparalleled access inside the gates. From national security challenges to computing revolutions, discover the innovations that are shaping tomorrow. Today, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is opening its doors to a new wave of talent. If you're driven by curiosity and a desire to solve complex challenges, the lab has a job opening for you. Currently, there are 139 open positions. These include opportunities in science, engineering, business administration and the skilled trades. From enhancing national security to pioneering new energy sources and advancing scientific frontiers, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is where you can make your mark on the world. Today's open roles lead power grid engineer, laser modeling physicist, postdoctoral researcher, OCEC program leader and chief data architect. But the list doesn't end there. Explore all available positions@llnl.gov careers each opportunity comes with a comprehensive benefits package tailored to your lifestyle and future. Join a workplace that champions professional growth, fosters collaboration, inspires innovation and and drives the pursuit of excellence. If you are ready to contribute to work that matters, visit llnl.govcareers to explore all the current job listings. That's llnl.govcareers. your expertise could very well be the highlight of our next podcast interview. Don't wait the idea for the National Ignition Facility began decades ago with physicist John Knuckles. He and his colleagues at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory theorized that lasers could be the key to unlocking the immense power of fusion. At the time, fusion had been achieved in nuclear weapons, but the challenge of triggering it without a nuclear reaction remained unsolved.