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31-03-09 Giant laser experiment powers up

The US has finished constructing a huge physics experiment aimed at recreating conditions at the heart of our Sun.The US National Ignition Facility is designed to demonstrate the feasibility of nuclear fusion,a process that could offer abundant clean energy.The lab will kick-start the reaction by focusing 192 giant laser beams on a tiny pellet of hydrogen fuel.To work,it must show that more energy can be extracted from the process than is required to initiate it.Professor Mike Dunne,who leads a European venture that is also pursuing nuclear fusion with lasers,told BBC News that if NIF was successful,it would be a "seismic event"."It would mark the transition for laser fusion from 'physics' to 'engineering reality'," he said.The California-based NIF is the largest experimental science facility in the US and contains the world's most powerful laser.It has taken 12 years to build."This is a major milestone," said Dr Ed Moses,director of the facility."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."(BBCnews)