The Radiochemical Analysis of Gaseous Samples (RAGS) diagnostic apparatus operates at the National Ignition Facility (NIF). At the NIF, xenon is injected into the target chamber as a tracer, used as an analyte in the NIF targets, and generated as a fission product from 14 MeV neutron fission of depleted uranium contained in the NIF hohlraum. Following a NIF shot, the RAGS apparatus used to collect the gas from the NIF target chamber and then to cryogenically fractionate xenon gas. Radio-xenon and other activation products are collected and counted via gamma spectrometry, with the results used to determine critical physics parameters including: capsule areal density, fuel-ablator mix, and nuclear cross sections.
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