http://rawstory.com/08/afp/2009/05/30/us-lab-debuts-super-laser/
begin quote from above webpage.
“We have invented the world’s largest laser system,” actor-turned-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said during a dedication ceremony attended by thousands including state and national officials.
“We can create the stars right here on earth. And I can see already my friends in Hollywood being very upset that their stuff that they show on the big screen is obsolete. We have the real stuff right here.”
NIF is touted as the world’s highest-energy laser system. It is located inside the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory about an hour’s drive from San Francisco.
Equipment connected to a house-sized sphere can focus 192 laser beams on a small point, generating temperatures and pressures that exist at cores of stars or giant planets.
end quote.
For 50 years the U.S. has been searching for a way to superheat hydrogen to create a small artificial star here on earth that would produce more energy than it takes to set it off. The device has finally been created by using 192 lasers shooting towards the center from a house sized sphere
begin quote: "NIF's success will be a scientific breakthrough of historic significance: the first demonstration of fusion ignition in a laboratory setting, duplicating on Earth the processes that power the stars." end quote.
The potential of this kind of technology if it is turned toward peaceful activities is almost unlimited in scope.
For example, if this technology becomes miniaturized it could be powered by small lasers in a small sphere and power with a small amount of hydrogen separated from water by electrolysis, individual homes or vehicles like cars, trucks, ships, etc. The potential here is virtually unlimited both on earth and in space.
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