No, I'm pretty sure it's entirely about the Atomic Weapons Establishment's main product line. The NIF isn't actually a practical fusion reactor design -- the ou

No, I'm pretty sure it's entirely about the Atomic Weapons Establishment's main product line. The NIF isn't actually a practical fusion reactor design -- the output energy from one of its fuel capsules is an order of magnitude less than the input energy that powers the laser, whereas a viable reactor would need to produce an order of magnitude more energy ... at least once a second, rather than once every few months, and using fuel pellets costing at most a couple of dollars, rather than several hundred thousand. What the NIF is good for is weapons research -- it's critically important to the Stockpile Stewardship and Management Program ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockpile_Stewardship_and_Management_Program http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockpile_Stewardship_and_Manag... ). And of course the AWE faces much the same issues in maintaining the British strategic nuclear deterrent as the NNSA does in maintaining the US warhead stockpile ... If they wanted to back fusion research for electricity they'd be pumping money into ITER (the conservative option) or taking a flutter on pollywell devices (the hopeful long shot that might deliver a shortcut).