The new NIF laser facility would be capable of delivering more than the 100 trillion watts of the present Nova laser. Some see the NIF as a way to design new weapons. Others think the weapons issue has being overplayed and may have done damage to the work of the anti-nuclear groups.
The Nova laser at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is the most powerful laser in the world. But this year the Energy Department requested more than $60 million in planning and engineering money for a National Ignition Facility (NIF) to be built at Livermore--a $1.1 billion project that would be 40 times more powerful than the Nova.
As of late July, it looked as if Energy would get less than it ...