Asianetindia – Record-breaking laser pulse paves way for fusion
Asianetindia – Record-breaking laser pulse paves way for fusion
24 March 2012
By the end of this year, the National Ignition Facility will try to focus nearly 2 million joules of ultraviolet laser energy at a tiny target at the tip of this “pencil”
In terms of laser energy, it was the biggest bang yet. On 15 March, the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California fired a single laser pulse containing 1.875 million joules of energy, exceeding its design energy of 1.8 megajoules for the first time. “This is very exciting, like breaking the sound barrier,” says NIF director Edward Moses. Next on the agenda for the building-sized laser is firing a pulse that energetic at a target, thereby igniting nuclear fusion.
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