US government ignites controversy over NIF laser fusion

The US Department of Energy (DoE) has announced the completion of the world's largest laser, which some experts believe could pave the way towards zero-carbon commercial laser fusion plants capable of generating more energy than they use.

However, the development has angered some anti-nuclear activist groups, which have warned the machine could also be used for simulating nuclear weapons explosions.

The National Ignition Facility (NIF), where the experiments are being undertaken, is housed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, one of the three nuclear weapons labs in the US.

It plans to use 192 lasers to heat a small fuel pellet at the heart of an ignition chamber. The pellet will then hopefully undergo a fusion process, generating vast amounts more energy than were required to fire the lasers. It is hoped that experiments – intended to start next year and continue until 2040 – could further fusion energy research that advocates believe could one day result in a near limitless supply of clean energy.

Nevertheless, NIF has been beset by construction problems since work on it first began in 1994 and it has come in over budget and past its deadline.

It has also been the subject of a lawsuit by the Natural Resources Defense Council, which sued in 2000 for failing to be transparent in its consultation process for NIF funding.

Moreover, Tri-Valley CARES, a Livermore-based anti-nuclear activist group, has criticised the project for being primarily focused on nuclear weapons research, and has complained about the inclusion of weapons-grade plutonium as a test material used in the device.

"The DoE has also decided to produce both the fusion and plutonium targets in Livermore, reneging on a separate promise to the community that the deuterium-tritium (radioactive hydrogen) fuel would be loaded at a more remote location due to the emissions," warned Marylia Kelley, TRI-Valley CARES executive director.

Richard Garwin, a renowned nuclear physicist who worked on the original hydrogen bomb under Enrico Fermi, has called the NIF a " white elephant" which was handed to the labs as a bargaining chip by the Clinton administration in return for the cessation of underground nuclear testing in 1992.