Valentin Kostyukov, the director of Russia’s Sarov nuclear center, told Russian television on Aug. 12 that Moscow’s work on the world’s most powerful laser, the UFL-TM Tsar Laser, would be completed in four to five years, reported Sputnik. The Tsar Laser was initially developed as a part of Russia’s fusion program, but the main purpose for it now seems to be to test the viability of the nuclear arsenal without nuclear testing.
The Tsar Laser can also play a role in the development of controlled fusion energy. The results last year from the U.S. laser facility at Lawrence Livermore Lab showed that a laser could produce net energy from fusion from its burst. The laser installation can also assist in groundbreaking research in the field of high-energy-density physics, namely, the study of the properties of matter in extreme states, including ultra-high pressures and temperatures, characteristic in powerful explosions, which can be helpful, for example, in the study of processes occurring in our Sun and other stars.