Here we go!
Posted on 03/30/2009 11:12:04 PM PDT by LibWhacker
At a cost of $3.5 billion and more than a decade of work, the 192 laser beams are billed as the most powerful in the world.
Scientists working at the National Ignition Facility of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, have built the most powerful laser in the world, capable of simulating the energy force of a hydrogen bomb and the sun itself.
“The system already has produced 25 times more energy than any other laser system,” said NIF Director Ed Moses.
The Energy Department is expected to announce Tuesday that it has officially certified the National Ignition Facility, which would clear the way for a series of experiments which scientists hope will eventually will mimic the heat and pressure found at the center of the sun.
The successful completion of the laser is the culmination of more than a decade of work at a cost of $3.5 billion.
“NIF is well on its way to achieving breakthroughs in science never imagined. Through our readiness testing we will see glimpses of what that future will bring,” said Moses.
This artist's rendering shows a NIF target pellet inside a hohlraum capsule with laser beams entering through openings on either end. The beams compress and heat the target to the necessary conditions for nuclear fusion to occur. Ignition experiments on NIF will be the culmination of more than 30 years of inertial confinement fusion research and development, opening the door to exploration of previously inaccessible physical regimes.
NIF’s 192 laser beams, housed in a ten-story building the size of three football fields, travel a long path, about 1,000 feet, from their birth at one of the two master oscillators to the center of the target chamber. As the beams move through NIF’s amplifiers, their energy increases exponentially. From beginning to end, the beams’ total energy grows from one-billionth of a joule (a joule is the energy needed to lift a small apple one meter against the Earth’s gravity) to four million joules, a factor of more than a quadrillion - and it all happens in less than 25 billionths of a second.
Each master oscillator generates a very small, low-energy laser pulse. The pulse may range from 100 trillionths to 25 billionths of a second long, and has a specific temporal shape as requested by NIF experimenters.
The laser is expected to be used for a wide range of high-energy and high-density physics experiments, but its primary purpose is to assist government physicists in ensuring the reliability of the nation’s nuclear weapons as they become older.
The Lawrence Livermore lab will be taking order of the world’s most powerful supercomputer –capable of performing at 20 petaflops (1 petaflop equals 1 thousand trillion floating-point operations per second), twenty times faster than the current record holder, and more powerful than all of the systems on the top 500 supercomputer list combined– currently being constructed by IBM under contract by the U.S. government, which will also be utilized to ensure the safety of the country’s nuclear weapons.
“We are well on our way to achieving what we set out to do – controlled, sustained nuclear fusion and energy gain for the first time ever in a laboratory setting,” said Director Moses.
“This laser technology has the potential to revolutionize our energy future,” California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said during a tour last year of the stadium-sized NIF facility. “If successful, this new endeavor could generate thousands of megawatts of carbon-free nuclear power but without the drawbacks of conventional nuclear plants. This type of innovation is why we are a world leader in science, technology and clean energy, and I could not be prouder that this work is happening right here in California.”
The project is a national collaboration among government, industry and academia and many industrial partners throughout the nation.
The NIF’s 192 laser beams are 60 to 70 times more powerful than the world’s second strongest - a 60-beam system located at the University of Rochester.
Here we go!
That’s no moon!
Whoa!...I'll take Two... 
seems like old times..
American ingenuity! I have my SR51a TI. Cost over $100.00
“World’s Most Powerful Laser has the Energy of a Hydrogen Bomb”
That has to be total BS.
I think the writer means it has the Power of a Hydrogen bomb but for a fraction of the time of a hydrogen bomb. Otherwise there be a glass crater where the facility is...
Maybe congress could figure out how to use this thing to cut some pork out of the budget.
What, no pic of Dr. Evil and his giant “LASER” beam??
As the beams move through NIF’s amplifiers, their energy increases exponentially. From beginning to end, the beams’ total energy grows from one-billionth of a joule ... to four million joules,
A 1-megaton hydrogen bomb has an explosive energy of about 4 x 10^15 joules; in other words it is a billion times more powerful than this laser.
laser beam
in my dream
laser beam
in my dream
laser beam
in my dream
I can’t get on
I can’t get off
laser beam’s like a sawed off dream
It is "35" because of the number of buttons. And, it only spoke RPN (Reverse Polish Notation) - it was "stack" design, but alas not programmable.
First batch sold were recalled (at HP's expense) - Arc Tan function had a "bug" in it.
A later model, HP-65 was programmable and even had a itty-bitty magnetic card reader - very clever for its time.
Perhaps they could point that thing toward the Western skies... in the direction of N. Korea, and lock on anything ‘rocketing’ away from Dear Leaders airspace.
You know, just to kick the tires, get it out ‘on the road’ and see what it’ll do!
Our energy problems are solved! Just attach some energy amplifiers.
That sounds better than calling it the world's fastest popcorn maker.
Thanks.
People are going to read this article and believe it...
Journalism is in a sad state...
I loved my 41C with a card reader.
Still have it.
It is "35" because of the number of buttons. And, it only spoke RPN (Reverse Polish Notation) - it was "stack" design, but alas not programmable.
I had a TI-1250 ($117USD (cheap), TI-30 & TI-65.
...then I graduated to HP-33C, HP-15, HP-28C(rap), HP-48SX/GX....HP-49G
..the TI-65, had ROM program modules.
....your correct, card reader (HP-67/97) were great...
SIM (2GB) Chip, Are fantastic. :)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.