Laser Fusion at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory

Laser fusion, also known as Inertial Confinement Fusion, uses extremely powerful lasers to heat and compress a deuterium/tritium fuel pellet to a temperature and density where fusion will take place. It has been studied since the 70's. One of the main problems has been making powerful-enough lasers. The other challenge has been the accuracy with which the laser beams must impact the fuel pellet. If the impact is not perfect, the pellet does not implode precisely enough to achieve the needed density for fusion.

In the linked Newsweek article, Edward Moses, head scientist at the National Ignition Facility, or NIF, portion of Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, believes they have overcome these problems and will demonstrate productive laser fusion (more energy out than in) some time in the next year.