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Alexander BesantJuly 19, 2012 12:34
Laser shot: most powerful ever recorded may help develop fusion energy
Physicists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory fired a record-breaking laser delivering 500 trillion watts – 500 terrawatts - of power.
Physicists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory fired a record-breaking laser delivering 500 trillion watts – 500 terrawatts - of power.
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Powerful laser shot at US lab delivers the biggest blast ever recorded. (Damien Jemison/LLNL /Courtesy)
The most powerful laser shot ever recorded was fired by US scientists earlier this month.
Physicists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory fired a record-breaking laser delivering 500 trillion watts – 500 terrawatts - of power.
The shot, which occurred July 5, represents 1000 times more power than the entire United States uses at any given time.
"The 500 terrawatt shot is an extraordinary accomplishment by the NIF Team, creating unprecedented conditions in the laboratory that hitherto only existed deep in stellar interiors," said Richard Petrasso, a physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, reported Live Science.
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According to Wired, the National Ignition Facility delivered 192 laser beams at the same time to hit a target just two millimeters in diameter.
The laser blast is part of a four-step process that aims at developing fusion energy as an alternative to coal and oil.
The goal, it is reported, is to have the fusion cells attached to the US energy grid producing self-renewable power by the 2020s, said TG Daily.
The Laser Inertial Fusion Energy (LIFE) project is funded by the US Department of Energy.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/science/120719/laser-shot-most-powerful-ever-recorded-may-help-develop-fusion-energy
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