Global Security Newswire

A full test of the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California is scheduled for 2010, Environment and Energy reported yesterday (see GSN, June 1).

The massive $4 billion system is designed to fire 192 lasers at tiny targets to create the conditions necessary for nuclear fusion. Among its anticipated uses would be measuring the safety and reliability of weapons in the U.S. nuclear stockpile.

The laser has been undergoing testing after being completed earlier this year. All 192 lasers are set to be fired in a test next year in order to produce a fusion reaction.

Livermore scientists, though, are being careful as they move ahead.

"We don't want to break the world's biggest laser in its first month of operation," said NIF researcher Mordecai Rosen (Jenny Mandel, Environment and Energy, Aug. 20).