World's Largest Laser to Help Tap into Free Energy

At the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California last week, the most powerful laser ever made was readied for a variety of important tasks, from monitoring nuclear weapons to studying deep space planets and solar systems.

The official name of the new super laser is the National Ignition Facility (NIF), and late last week it was unveiled with much fanfare at the Livermore laboratory in Livermore, California.

World's Strongest Laser

State governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who scared the beejezus out of us all with his futuristic, laser-eyed cyborg routine back in the 1990s, was on hand to help create buzz for the project. So too was Senator Diane Feinstein and several other officials from local and national levels of government.  Some 3,500 others were also there. (Source: informationweek.com)

The laser, which has been dubbed the world's strongest, is actually a collection of many smaller, separate lasers. 192 beams with the potential to travel a thousand feet in 0.001 of a second are concentrated in a single beam not much bigger than the cap of your pen. The entire facility housing this incredible technology is about the size of a football field.

Nuclear Weapons and Fusion

The super laser will be used in part to help test active nuclear weapons. Some of these incredibly dangerous devices are getting pretty old, and the NIF can be used to help test their functionality without performing more rigorous, and presumably hazardous, underground testing.

Astrophysicists also plan to make use of the National Ignition Facility. Scientists will be able to use the device for experiments creating controlled fusion reactions not unlike those found on the surface of the sun. Other tests could include attempts to recreate conditions inside planets or solar systems, helping us better understand both space and Earth itself.

Free Energy

The most promising use, particularly for those living in California, will be the replication of fusion reactions in an effort to discover more efficient sources of energy. "More energy will be produced by this ignition process than the amount of laser energy required to start it," noted Edward Moses, director of the NIF. "This is the long-sought goal of energy gain that has been the goal of fusion researchers for more than half a century." (Source: mercurynews.com)