Laser Megajoule Project status

Summary form only given. The construction of the LMJ is planned for the end of 2008. A first step will be the construction of a prototype named LIL (Ligne d'Integration Laser) which consists of a complete laser chain of 8 beamlets. The LIL will be completed by the end of 2001. It will be equipped with a target chamber in order to qualify the beam quality and performances on target and to restart laser-plasma experiments in 2002. The LIL building is now completed and the installation of laser components will start in April 2000. In order to follow the project planning, the construction of the LMJ building, now under design, will take place at the very end of the year 2000. The facility design is now frozen and its main differences compared to the NIF design will be presented. They consist essentially in the number of beamlines, their arrangement related to the target chamber. The focusing system and the laser multipass architecture. Major industrial contracts will be placed, together for LIL and LMJ, during 1999. They concern 16 major contracts each of them covering a specific component like front end, amplifiers, spatial filters, power conditioning.