Harnessing a star's power for clean energy

CNET NEWS, 6/4/2010 - LIVERMORE, Calif.--Think clean energy is a fantasy? What if the power of a star was applied to the problem? ∴ That's the approach being explored at the National Ignition Facility (NIF), a huge-scale experiment in laser fusion based at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory here. Scientists are looking at NIF as a potential key to producing large amounts of carbon-free power. ∴ It's not known if the system will ever bear the kind of fruit the scientists and administrators who run NIF would like. Still, the facility is a scientific wonder that can transform a single laser beam no wider than a human hair into 192 beams--each of which is 18 inches wide. Together, the beams are designed to produce 4 million joules, the amount of power that would produce 4 million watts of power in a single second. Read more at CNet...

See How NIF Works (video) at YouTube.