在舊金山40公里外，一座建築大小如球場的「勞倫斯利佛摩爾國家實驗室」（Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory），科學家正在進行一項「迷你太陽」試驗。這項計畫運用名為「國家點燃實驗設施」（National Ignition Facility，NIF）的設備，用世界上最強的192道雷射光點燃「氫丸」、熔合其原子，藉此產生巨大能量。
「NIF國家點燃實驗設施」身負多項任務：支援核武貯藏量的研究、探究宇宙起源、以及替未來核融合能源的利用鋪路。
加州快速增加的人口所要的不只是更多的能源，而且是要乾淨的能源，以對抗溫室效應並確保純淨環境。科學家期待，NIF能產生核融合能源並達到零溫室氣體排放。
加州州長阿諾表示：「最令人感到振奮的其實是潛在的能源改革，未來科學家將對核能利用做最大努力，轉化為穩定且可長久使用的能源。我已說過不止一次，核能本該被視為未來我們的能源能源，只要安全問題與核廢料問題得以克服。假使成功，此項「生命計畫」（The Life Program）將產出無盡的零碳電力，這件事很重要──零碳電力，而且不會有傳統核能電廠反應爐融化等事件發生。核廢料將減到最低，事實上，核融合能源取代（或減少）現存的核子存量，因為這項「生命之爐」能燃燒掉核廢料。」
但並非每個人都如此熱衷NIF。民間「Tri-Valley CAREs社區反對幅射環境」組織（Tri-Valley CAREs）執行長凱利（Marylia Kelly）表示：「NIF是能源局核子存量監督計畫中最昂貴的方案。實際上，其目的在訓練一批新的炸彈設計者，提升美國開發或改良核子武器的能力。」
Forty miles east of San Francisco, scientists are constructing a miniature Sun within a stadium-sized building at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Called the National Ignition Facility, it will use 192 of the world's most power lasers to ignite a hydrogen fuel pellet, fusing its atoms, and producing enormous amounts of energy from that fusion.
The laser facility has multiple missions - research to support the nuclear weapons stockpile, research into the origins of the universe, and research to help pave the way for the future use of fusion energy.
California's fast-growing population needs not just more energy but more clean energy to fight global warming and keep the environment clean. The fusion energy that National Ignition Facility is expected to produce creates no greenhouse gases.
"What's most exciting about it is the potential to revolutionize our energy future," Schwarzenegger said. "Scientists here will work to harness that fusion energy and turn it into a viable long-term nuclear power source. And I have said many times that nuclear power ought to be part of our future energy supply, assuming that it is safe and the waste issue is addressed."
"If successful, this new endeavor, called The Life Program, would generate an endless amount of megawatts of carbon-free power - and that's the important thing, of carbon-free power - but without the drawbacks of the conventional nuclear plants, which means that there is no risk of a reactor melting down or anything like this," the governor said. "The nuclear waste is minimized. In fact, it would even replace or reduce existing nuclear stockpiles, since live engines can burn nuclear waste."
But not everyone is enthusiastic about the National Ignition Facility.
Tri-Valley CAREs Executive Director Marylia Kelly says, "The NIF is the most costly element of the Department of Energy's tockpile Stewardship" program, and is intended to train a new generation of bomb designers and enhance U.S. capability to develop new and modified nuclear weapons."
