Giant laser recreates sun power

US scientists have completed world's most powerful lab laser capable of self-sustaining nuclear fusion and recreating energy force of the sun. 

After more than half a century and a budget of $US3.5 billion, US National Ignition Facility (NIF) realized its long-sought goal: the huge physics experiment to recreate conditions at the sun and simulate the energy force of a hydrogen bomb. 

Completed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and housed in a ten-story building the size of three football fields, NIF will kick-start the reaction by focusing 192 giant lasers beams on a tiny pellet of hydrogen fuel. 

When all of its beams are operational, NIF will focus about two million joules of ultraviolet laser energy on a tiny target in the center of its target chamber - creating conditions similar to those that exist only in the cores of stars and giant planets and inside a nuclear weapon. 

The resulting fusion reaction will deliver at least 60 times more energy than any previous laser system. 

The American experiment, which is claimed to contribute to national and global security, could lead to practical fusion energy.