Oregon Public Broadcasting

Our series The Switch focuses on energy and where it comes from. 

When you flip the switch, where does your power come from? And what will power Northwest homes and businesses in the future? We're asking these questions and more for our special series The Switch.

Along the way, we’re talking to people with big ideas for our energy future, and ideas don’t come much bigger or more high-tech than the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

It’s the world’s largest laser, housed in a 10-story building that will shoot intense energy at tiny targets of hydrogen fuel in tiny BB-sized capsules, thus attempting to create little controlled fusion reactions. 

It’s a project that’s been 12 years passed and $3.5 billion spent in the making.

Doctor Ed Moses is the principal director of the National Ignition Facility.

Online:

Narrated videos about the National Ignition Facility

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory