The National Ignition Facility

[Computer Hope Admin]

Fascinating and amazing stuff that I thought you'd all enjoy, since I seem to recall the conversations about the hadron collider being well received. Be warned that the link contains about a dozen large images, but worth the wait.

"Creating a miniature star on Earth" is the goal of the National Ignition Facility (NIF), home to the world's largest and highest-energy laser in Livermore, California. On September 29th, 2010, the NIF completed its first integrated ignition experiment, where it focused its 192 lasers on a small cylinder housing a tiny frozen capsule containing hydrogen fuel, briefly bombarding it with 1 megajoule of laser energy. The experiment was the latest in a series of tests leading to a hoped-for "ignition", where the nuclei of the atoms of the fuel inside the target capsule are made to fuse together releasing tremendous energy - potentially more energy than was put in to start the initial reaction, becoming a valuable power source.

Link

[Quantos]

That's some really cool stuff, thanks Nathan.

[Computer_Commando]

The world's most powerful laser is located here and is called MIRACL .

[Computer Hope Admin]

I don't know apples to oranges when it comes to lasers, but from everything I've read it indicates that the National Ignition Facility boasts the most powerful laser system. Maybe this one has the most energy when its fully operational?

“The system already has produced 25 times more energy than any other laser system,” said NIF Director Ed Moses.

Source

[Computer_Commando]

...Maybe this one has the most energy when its fully operational?...

1 joule=1 watt-sec
NIF --> 4megajoule = 4megawatt-sec
MIRACL --> 2megawatt for 70sec = 140megajoules
Total energy produced, so far, could favor either one, depending on total run times.

“The system already has produced 25 times more energy than any other laser system,” said NIF Director Ed Moses.
That statement could be true.

[Dead Reckon]

Heh... I've got one word to describe the outcome if they increase the scale of this experiment...


BOOM!