World?s most powerful laser under construction outside Nizhny Novgorod

The first stage of the world?s most powerful laser project, being developed in Sarov some 185km south of Nizhny Novgorod in the mid-Volga area, is slated for completion in 2017.

The first stage of the world?s most powerful laser project, being developed in Sarov some 185km south of Nizhny Novgorod in the mid-Volga area, is slated for completion in 2017, Russia Today in Russian reported. It is reportedly being designed as a multiple-access center open for both Russian and international scientists. According to Valentin Kostyukov, the director of the Sarov-based Russian Federal Nuclear Center, the initial phase of project planning was completed yesterday. Further laser design work and construction of the site is expected to take another year or so. With the first stage of the laser unit up and running the site will enable ?serious scientific experiments,? which Mr. Kostyukov believes will shed light on many current problems in fundamental sciences. The UFL-2m laser unit will have 192 laser channels, cover an area the size of two soccer fields, and is expected to be as high as a ten-storey building. The system is being designed to have a pulse energy of more than two megajoules, superior to its international analogs. The similar unit in the U.S. and one being built in France have 1...