Romanian ELI-NP Laser reach a 10th of the power of the Sun - 10.88 Peta Watts

The ELI-NP (Extreme Light Infrastructure Nuclear Physics) laser is being built in Romania as part of the European project and International Cooperation. The infrastructure has 2 high power laser branches and a high-performance gamma-ray radiation generator that will intersect their beams. The maximum power reached as part of the test was 10.88 Petawatts representing a new world record for a Laser beam intensity. The project idea was born in 2005 as an initiative of the European Community Laser Scientists and especially of the French scientist Gerard Mouru. The Romanian Project cost is 293 million Euro and a part of the funding came from the European Union. Romania has a long tradition in Nuclear Physics and Laser research being the 3rd nation to build a Laser ( after USA and Russia) and being among the first few nations to start using the Laser for medical purposes.

Among the proposed areas of research and future use of a laser of this magnitude is the safe destruction of nuclear waste and medical use in cancer treatment using targeted proton beams to replace the traditional therapies. Two very promising achievements that will help the human race move forward!
Youtube link about the project youtu.be...

Do not click on this link without your special glasses on!!

Cool, will have a watch, sounds wicked

a reply to: Mandroid7

Ha Ha Good one

hum one question how will they generate the power needed to run it more then a micro second ?
It has never been a question of building things that use a lot of power but how to power them ?
the whole worlds energy production does not = .001 % of the suns energy .
Until we can PRODUCE power on this scale it is pointless to build things that need that much power .

originally posted by: midnightstar
hum one question how will they generate the power needed to run it more then a micro second ?
It has never been a question of building things that use a lot of power but how to power them ?
the whole worlds energy production does not = .001 % of the suns energy .
Until we can PRODUCE power on this scale it is pointless to build things that need that much power .

And "how much power is that?"

And it only cost $369 million Euros, pffft re: DARPA's "black budgets" and these guys are doing it up front!

Anyway, "energy" has 'levels' of 'intensity' .. it's all "relative", they are reproducing 'one tenth ofthe sun's intensity' BUT

Only in a tiny area of a few sqare cms, unlike the sun which Is producing the same 'intensities of energy' But on a Huge scale

that's why they only need a few (hundred?) million amps which can be stored in capacitor 'banks' over time for 'rapid release' when using the laser ...

sigh ... do some research on lasers, it would take ages to explain in text to you

Sweet!

I guess they figured out their lawsuit stuff. Really cool that it worked at 10 petta watts!



@midnightstar, reason this is cool news: Because the end goal is 100 petta watt lasers.

This is a stepping stone towards that goal. And there is some literature out there that thinks that when we reach a "couple dozen" petta watts then we can do proton-Boron fusion which convert the fuel directly over to energy at large Snicker Bar sized amounts! No mess to clean up either (i.e., radiation).

When they reach 100 petta watts, they think that they should be able to create antimatter from the vacuum of space!

Which of course implies Star Trek-level access to space. At least for 5 years...

From my understanding of the video and other sources, the final focused beam will be shrunk to less than the human hair thickness !!! The idea of the medical experiment part is to produce "tabletop" units of this laser that will be used in targeting cancer tumors. This technique is 100% accurate and effective and does not damage surrounding tissues so as far as medicine goes will get rid of the awful disabling and damaging chemotherapy process. I see a great future on this one.
In my opinion, science is the only solution to the actual mess the world is in. Let's hope for the best folks!

originally posted by: midnightstar
hum one question how will they generate the power needed to run it more then a micro second ?
It has never been a question of building things that use a lot of power but how to power them ?
the whole worlds energy production does not = .001 % of the suns energy .
Until we can PRODUCE power on this scale it is pointless to build things that need that much power .

LASERS run at high voltages, but relatively low current compared to voltage, so they don't take massive amounts of energy to run them as compared to the advertised energy of the LASER which is different because of amplification over a short period of time until the LASER fires. And these big ones are doing it pulsed, until these crystals energize over a period of time so they don't draw some massive current all at once to make them work. (from watching the video) I could be wrong though.

I only have experience building much lower power LASERS than what's described here obviously, but I believe the basic principles follow through from the little guys to the bigger behemoths.