The State - News from Jan. 15, 1986

The world’s most powerful laser has created its first “star” in an experiment scientists said was “another step forward on the mile-long journey toward harnessing fusion energy,” the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory reported. Erik Storm, deputy associate director of the Northern California-based lab, said scientists using the laser, called Nova, created “a tiny pinpoint-sized star, which produced 11 trillion neutrons.” Storm said it was 10 times brighter than the previous brightest laser-made “star” created at Osaka University in Japan with the Gekko laser. He pointed out that scientists still have a long way to go to in efforts to produce enough energy to power a fusion reactor and “provide a safe and virtually inexhaustible energy source.”