Editing Fusion power (section)

=== First inertial confinement experiments ===
{{multiple image
 | total_width = 440
 | image1 = Shiva amplifier chains.jpg
 | caption1 = Shiva laser, 1977, the largest ICF laser system built in the seventies
 | image2 = The Tandem Mirror Experiment.jpg
 | caption2 = The Tandem Mirror Experiment (TMX) in 1979 }}

Laser fusion was suggested in 1962 by scientists at [[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory]] (LLNL), shortly after the invention of the laser in 1960. [[Inertial confinement fusion]] experiments using lasers began as early as 1965.{{Citation needed|date=July 2024}} Several laser systems were built at LLNL, including the [[Argus laser|Argus]], the [[Cyclops laser|Cyclops]], the [[Janus laser|Janus]], the [[Long path laser|long path]], the [[Shiva laser]], and the [[Nova (laser)|Nova]].<ref>{{cite journal | doi = 10.1088/0029-5515/25/9/063 | volume=25 | title=Highlights of laser fusion related research by United Kingdom universities using the SERC Central Laser Facility at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory | year=1985 | journal=Nuclear Fusion | pages=1351–1353 | last1 = Key | first1 = M.H.| issue=9 | s2cid=119922168 }}</ref>

Laser advances included frequency-tripling crystals that transformed infrared laser beams into ultraviolet beams and "chirping", which changed a single wavelength into a full spectrum that could be amplified and then reconstituted into one frequency.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Inertial confinement nuclear fusion : a historical approach by its pioneers|date=2007|publisher=Foxwell & Davies (UK)|editor=Verlarde, G. |editor2=Carpintero–Santamaría, Natividad |isbn=978-1905868100|location=London |oclc=153575814}}</ref> Laser research cost over one billion dollars in the 1980s.<ref name="NRDC">{{cite web |last1=McKinzie |first1=Matthew |last2=Paine |first2=Christopher E. |date=2000 |title=When peer review fails: The Roots of the National Ignition Facility (NIF) Debacle |url=http://www.nrdc.org/nuclear/nif2/findings.asp |access-date=October 30, 2014 |publisher=National Resources Defense Council}}</ref>