Colorado State University is one of three research hubs chosen to share $42 million research fund over four years. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and the University of Rochester in New York State will share the fund with CSU. CSU will get $16 million of the $42 million.

The CSU hub will study multiple kinds of lasers proposed for differing inertial fusion concepts and also examine different designs for the fuel targets. Professor Carmen Menoni led CSU’s proposal, and she will be looking at new materials for the coatings used on laser optics. The combined efforts of the research hubs should help the US Department of Energy in its goal to harness miniature laser-driven thermonuclear explosions for future power plants.