The National Ignition Facility, located in Livermore, CA, is a spectacular, ultramodern facility the size of a football stadium. Housed within are 192 laser beams, which can be focused onto a one-centimeter glass sphere containing deuterium and tritium fuel. Once the 1 billionth-of-a-second pulses from the lasers commence, the impact causes the pellet to implode.

Inside, the fuel ignites and achieves nuclear fusion, momentarily creating a nanoscale star.

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