fusion energy

After over a decade and 3.5 billion dollars engineers have created the worlds most powerful laser. One in which can simulate the power of a hydrogen bomb or the sun itself. The Federal Energy Department has certified the California laboratory clearing the way for experiments in the next year that will hopefully mimic the heat and pressure at the middle of the sun. The facility which is the size of a football field houses 192 lasers that each travel at 1000 feet in one/thousandth of a second and they all converge on a single spot the size of a pencil eraser. The laser will have a wide range of uses from high energy, high density physics experiments. A primary use of the facility will be to help government physicists ensure the reliability of the nations nuclear weapons as they become older. The laser was first proposed in 1997 and had a projected cost of 700 million dollars in which there were early setbacks in the project that were eventually overcome. Scientists will be gradually ramping up the power over the next year until the year 2010 which they hope to reach the power capable of fusion ignition. Meaning that enough heat and pressure can come together to fuse two hydrogen atoms together which results in more energy releases than used by the laser. This is what happens when a hydrogen bomb explodes and also what occurs at the center of the sun. Scientists hope to one day create fusion energy and have a clean safe form of energy. Edward Moses director of the project said "The lasers are there. The targets are there, and we've proven the optics. But now the proof is in the shooting. We've got to put all this together and shoot the targets. It's the first time anyone has ever done experiments at this scale." The 192 lasers create 60 to 70 times more energy than the second most powerful laser system in the world. Moses also said "What we want to show is scientific proof of the principal of fusion energy." He also predicts that the fusion energy will create 50 to 100 times more energy than the lasers use. According to lasers.llni.gov they are creating a miniature star on earth. the lasers create the same life giving affect that stars produce. I feel the recent developments in fusion science is very uplifting and good for the scientific community. If we can produce the type of energy possible from fusion energy which is equal to that of the sun and as clean and safe as it is said to be then i am very excited. The world of energy is constantly becoming more efficient and better the earth. I think fusion energy is very important and will someday be very useful.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29964926/

https://lasers.llni.gov/