World-beating TWO-QUADRILLION-WATT LASER fired by boffins

Nuclear fusion researchers at Osaka University in Japan claim they have made history by firing the world's most powerful laser – emitting a two-quadrillion-watt beam albeit for a very, very brief period of time. The two-petawatt beam was formed using the huge LFEX (Laser for Fast ignition EXperiments) system developed by the …

[Your alien overlord - fear me]

100m long - how's Luke going to battle the dark side with something so unweildly?

[Anonymous Coward]

To be fair I don't think he needs that much power to take on those foes.

[Nuno]

Using sharks, obviously...

[Sandtitz]

100m?

"I see your Schwartz is as big as mine. Now let's see how well you handle it."

[DocJD]

Not much to fight with

The amount of energy in one burst is about the same as hitting someone with a baseball bat. (Maybe with a cricket bat also, but I've never seen one and have no idea what they might mass.)

[Stoneshop]

LFEX was finished last year, is about 100 metres long,

So they need to work a bit on growing bigger sharks. Which shouldn't be too difficult, after all, Godzilla came from Japan too.

[Mark 85]

Oh dear...

The "N" word and a laser beam... I can hear the screams of all the anti-nuke crowd now.

But it pretty cool if they can figure this out and get it to work.

[wobbly1]

Re: Oh dear...

Most anti-nukes understand the difference between fusion and fission.

[John Robson]

Re: Oh dear...

They really don't

see the renaming of NMR to MRI as evidence...

[saif]

A fry up or a fusion meal?

2kJ = number of calories in 1/2 portion of Fish and Chips

Now just need aworkout to burn that up in a pisosecond

[Chris Miller]

Re: A fry up or a fusion meal?

Food calories are 'large' calories (kilocalories), so this is about half a calorie (if you're watching that waistline).

For your further scientific edification, boffins (to use the ElReg approved terminology) can now produce lasers from bacon (almost).

[Eddy Ito]

Re: A fry up or a fusion meal?

Yes 2 kJ isn't very much as it will only warm your pint about one degree but consider that a 5.56 mm NATO round starts its journey with about 1.7 to 1.8 kJ. Given the surface area this energy is likely focused on, it's going to leave a mark.

[Ugotta B. Kiddingme]

Re: NOW your talking!

now my talking what, exactly?

[<shakes head>]

hair removal

as above

[Elmer Phud]

Pure Science!

If a device fails to start up the way it ought to -- hit the bugger harder!

[AceRimmer1980]

We're gonna need

a bigger shark..

[TonyJ]

Re: We're gonna need

"We're gonna need

a bigger shark.."

Oh great. The newest arms race.

Bigger shark...bigger boat...even bigger shark...warship...where will it end??

[launcap]

Re: We're gonna need

> Bigger shark...bigger boat...even bigger shark...warship...where will it end??

Dreadnaught?

[Bluto Nash]

Re: We're gonna need

Sharknado!

[Robert Helpmann??]

Re: We're gonna need

It's turtles all the way down!^*

*You will have to click through to get the joke.^**

**No, I won't ruin it by explaining it.

[TimR]

...and will be used to develop a "fast ignition" fusion reactor:

Hopefully not too fast...

[Anonymous Coward]

This should wake the buggers up

When I use it conjunction with my next powerpoint presentation

[W3dge]

Anyone know how much energy they had to input?

[NanoMeter]

When it comes to lasers

Evil use will always triumph because Good use is dumb!

[Dr. G. Freeman]

Points laser pointer at the back of boss' head....

pick up phone "Hello Osaka, can I borrow your new laser ?"

A man can dream.

[Graham Marsden]

"you're not going to be blowing up any planets with LFEX"

I find your lack of faith disturbing...

(Mine's the long black cape)

[Evil Auditor]

Yes yes... but does it do pew?

[Anonymous Coward]

What's this in IDSUs? (Imperial Death Star Units)

[Anonymous Coward]

But..

Yeah, that's nice, but we also want the ability to destroy an asteroid, or an alien invader.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re. But..

Destroy? Punching a few holes in it then dropping a nuke down each might do the job, has no-one seen "Armageddon" ?

[Andus McCoatover]

You'll recall from school that a watt is a joule per second

Other way around?

[MajorTom]

Re: You'll recall from school that a watt is a joule per second

Right, so Watts x Seconds gives you Joules, as in the article.

[Elfo74]

100m

"100m long - how's Luke going to battle the dark side with something so unweildly?"

Well, I can think of one way: https://xkcd.com/1433/