A $1.5bn dual-purpose powerful laser machine will be built near Sarov Technopark in Diveyevo district in Nizhny Novgorod region, news agency RIA Novosti reports citing Ildar Ilkayev, scientific leader, Russian Federal Nuclear Center.

Sarov Technopark was founded on basis of Russian Federal Nuclear Center – the All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics (RFNC-VNIIEF).

“Federal authorities have announced plans to create the largest laser machine… Similar machine has been built in the US. Another one is currently under construction in France. We will build ours later as it is very expensive, but it will be the best one in the world,” Mr. Ilkayev said.

According to him, the machine power will total 2.8 megajoules, while the US and French lasers have about 2 megajoules in power.

Mr. Ilkaev added that the machine will be used for dual purposes. “On one hand, it will be used for defense purposes, such as studying high energy density physics and dense hot plasma physics, essential in creation of thermo-nuclear weapons. On the other hand, the machine can be of use in energy sector. Many physicists in the world believe in big role of laser thermo-nuclear synthesis in future energy,” Mr. Ilkayev explained.

Mr. Ilkayev would not provide specific construction deadlines. “Construction will take ten years. It will be 360-meter long and ten-storey-building-high machine,” the expert added.

Mr. Ilkayev told journalists that there were suggestions about building the machine inside the closed town Sarov, however, in his opinion, it should be built outside the closed territory in order to be accessible for regular scientists, including foreign ones. “It has to be the national laser,” he resumed.