Error Budget Analysis for Tantalum Rayleigh-Taylor Experiment*

We analyze the expected experimental errors in a 5 Mbar peak pressure, Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) strength measurement in solid-state Ta to be performed on the National Ignition Facility in FY 2011. We also analyze the experimental errors for experiments on 1 Mbar Ta strength already being carried out at the Omega-EP laser facility. The strength is inferred by measuring its strong stabilizing effect on the RT instability growth rate of solid-state Ta samples. We will show a detailed design and a thorough error analysis, based on a suite of 2D simulations, used to optimize the experiment and minimize the predicted uncertainty in the deduced Ta material strength from these solid-state RT experiments.