LLE gets initial 'green light' for funding

ongressional Representatives Jim Walsh, Louise Slaughter, and Tom Reynolds have announced initial Congressional committee approval for funding to enhance performance capability at the University's Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE).

The $18 million to expand the capacity of the laboratory's OMEGA laser is part of a $54.2 million appropriation for LLE included in the House Energy and Water Appropriations bill, set to be considered by the full House of Representatives when Congress returns from its August recess. Once the bill is passed by the full House in early fall, it moves to the Senate for consideration and approval before being signed into law by the President.

The laser facility is the lead laboratory for direct-drive inertial confinement fusion programs and home to the OMEGA laser, the highest-power ultraviolet fusion laser in the world. As such, it is the principal facility for the U.S. Department of Energy's Stockpile Stewardship Program. Scientists from around the nation utilize the high-powered laser in their quest to develop nuclear fusion as a reliable energy source. The OMEGA extension would mean that the laser facility will have a "petawatt" capability, producing one million billion watts of power and pushing LLE research capabilities to a new level.

"Since its inception in the late 1970s, the Laboratory for Laser Energetics has attracted $545 million to New York," said Robert McCrory, LLE director and professor of mechanical engineering. "The key to the lab's success is the ability to maintain state-of-the-art research facilities and a very high-quality research staff, and I am very glad that our area representatives are working so collaboratively to help secure funding for the next critical step in our work at the laboratory."

Maintained by University Public Relations
Please send your comments and suggestions to:
Public Relations.