Record breaking 500 trillion watt laser beam demonstrated.

Researchers at the National Ignition Facility have successfully completed a test firing of their high powered laser, delivering more than five hundred terawatts of power to a target in the chamber, and 1.85 megajoules (MJ) of ultraviolet laser light. Delivered by 192 beams, the test passes another challange on the way to igniting hydrogen fusion fuel in the laboratory and producing more energy than that supplied to the target.

• 500 terawatts is 1,000 times more power than the United States uses at any moment in time.
• 1.85MJ is about 100 times larger than any other laser in the world today.