Russia is set to build the world’s most powerful
dual-purpose laser station at the approximate cost of 45 billion rubles ($1.5
billion), a Russian nuclear official said on Thursday.
The station might be built near the Sarov Federal
Nuclear Center in Russia's Nizhny Novgorod region, said the head of the nuclear
center, Ildar Ilkayev, but he did not specify when the construction would
begin.
“The Russian leadership made a decision to build
the world’s largest laser station… The United States has already constructed a
similar station and France is about to complete the construction of their own
station. We [Russia] are behind them because it costs a lot, but it will be the
best one in the world,” Ilkayev said.
The mooted station, he said, will be both used for
military and scientific purposes, particularly in the research of laser
thermonuclear fusion, which scientists believe to be the backbone of the energy
production in the future.
Ilkayev said it would take at least 10 years to
build the station. It will be capable of directing 2.8 million joules of
ultraviolet laser energy compared to the output of the U.S. and French stations
of two mega joules.
The official also opts for the station, which will
be 360 meters in width and as tall as a 10-storey building, to be open for all
scientists, including from other countries.
U.S. California-based the National Ignition
Facility (NIF) was put into operation in 2009 and is currently the world’s
largest laser, occupying the territory of approximately three football fields.
Its 192 intense laser beams are capable of delivering 60 times the energy of
any previous laser systems to a target.
