title: PHYSICS: Will Livermore Laser Ever Burn Brightly?
abstract: The National Ignition Facility (NIF), a superlaser being built here at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in an effort to use lasers rather than nuclear explosions to create a fusion reaction, is supposed to allow weapons makers to preserve the nuclear arsenal--and do nifty fusion science, too. But a new report that examines its troubled past also casts doubt on its future. Even some of NIF's scientific and political allies are beginning to talk openly of a scaled-down version of the original 192-laser design.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Seife
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Malakoff