National Ignition Facility, Research institute in Livermore, California, United States
This research institute in Livermore, California, houses the world's largest laser system designed to recreate conditions found inside stars and nuclear weapons. The laser beams travel through a building complex the size of a sports stadium before converging on a target chamber at the center.
Construction began in 1997 as part of American efforts to maintain nuclear weapons expertise without explosive testing. The complex became operational in 2009 and achieved net energy gain from fusion for the first time in December 2022.
The facility takes its name from ignition, the moment when fusion reactions become self-sustaining without external energy. Visitors on tours see the target chamber where laser beams converge from all directions onto a fuel capsule smaller than a peppercorn.
Visitors must book tours several weeks in advance and pass a security background check. Tours last about two hours and show the control rooms and the outside of the target chamber, though access to active research areas remains restricted.
The lasers heat the target for less than a billionth of a second to temperatures hotter than the center of the sun. The total laser energy delivered equals roughly the power consumption of the entire United States during that brief moment.
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