The National Ignition Facility, or NIF, is a large, laser-based inertial confinement fusion (ICF) research device located at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, USA. NIF uses powerful lasers to heat and compress a small amount of hydrogen fuel to the point where nuclear fusion reactions take place. NIF is the largest and most energetic ICF device built to date, and the first that is expected to reach the long-sought goal of "ignition," producing more energy than was put in to start the reaction.

A European facility opening new avenues to reveal the secrets of matter on ultra-short timescales.
ELI is a European Project, involving nearly 40 research and academic institutions from 13 EU Members Countries, forming a pan-European Laser facility, that aims to host the most intense lasers world-wide.
The facility, based on four sites, will be the first large scale infrastructure based on the Eastern part of the European Community and has obtained a financial committment exceeding 700 M€. The European Commission has recently signed the approval for funding the first ELI-pillar, located in the Czech Republic, with a budget of nearly 290 M€.