"The most powerful ultraviolet laser in the world, (the 60-terawatt Omega, at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics at the University of Rochester, New York) is used to test fusion experiments (the same nuclear energy that powers the sun). In less than a billionth of a second, the laser sends the temperature in a tiny pellet from just a few degrees above absolute zero to nearly 30 million degrees Celsius -- twice as hot as the core of the sun. For this brief period of time the laser power is about 100 times the peak power of the entire U.S. power grid. An even more powerful laser is under construction at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California."
From Simon's website (megalaser.com)
