Quick Shot

In response to the COVID-19 risk mitigation changes throughout the inertial confinement fusion and high-energy-density-physics communities, LLE has added a telepresence capability for Principal Investigators (PI’s). This new protocol will allow target shot days on either OMEGA or OMEGA EP to be completed with an off-site PI or a rigorously social-distanced, on-site PI. The new LLE remote PI option was developed and deployed as part of a significant collaborative effort between Omega Operations and the LLE Information Technology (IT) group. It creates a virtual control room that immerses the PI in audio, live video, and screen images from either OMEGA or OMEGA EP, and connects the PI, regardless of their actual physical location, to real-life control rooms, providing the same control and communications capabilities available to an on-site PI. The remote PI option is now our standard operating mode and will deliver the availability and effectiveness for which OMEGA and OMEGA EP are known. The very first off-site PI, Dr. Patrick Poole of LLNL, is pictured here at his home while controlling the SRSXRay-20A campaign on OMEGA on 3 June 2020.