s-Process Branch Point (n,$\gamma )$ Measurements using NIF$^{\ast }$

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) at LLNL is a laser-driven inertial confinement fusion laboratory designed to compress pellets containing small ($<$10$^{20 }$atoms) samples of material to densities in excess of 100 g/cm$^{3}$ and temperatures up to $k_{B}$\textit{T$\approx $10 keV}. Early NIF shots will feature a proton-tritium (HT) fuel mix that creates a neutron spectrum similar to that found in AGB main sequence stars. In this talk I will discuss nuclear physics experiments using NIF and present a plan to measure the $^{171}$Tm(n,$\gamma )$ s-process branch point cross section in a NIF plasma environment which will include the plasma-induced population of the first excited state at $E_{x}$\textit{=5.0 keV}. *This work performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract W-7405-Eng-48 and under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344. For LBNL this work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231.