How NIF Works
The National Ignition Facility, located at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, is the world s largest laser 192 huge laser beams in a massive building, all focused down at the last moment at a 2 millimeter ball containing frozen hydrogen gas. The goal is to achieve getting more energy out than was used to create it. It s never been done before under controlled conditions, just in nuclear weapons and in stars. We expect to do it within the next 23 years. The purpose is threefold: to create an almost limitless supply of safe, carbonfree, proliferationfree electricity; examine new regimes of astrophysics as well as basic science; and study the innerworkings of the U. S. stockpile of nuclear weapons to ensure they remain safe, secure and reliable without the need for underground testing. More information about NIF can be found at:
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