Kate O’Connell wrote an article for WXXI on a new company that opened up to in Rochester that builds industrial lenses that can be used in fusion research. The company, ITT Exelis, just cut the ribbon on a $2 million machine that generates lenses removes impurities, which is important for the use of high energy lasers. These lenses are a step forward for inertial confinement fusion. From the article:

“It is so precise that it removes virtually any kind of impurities or imperfections in the glass that could cause that glass to be destroyed when you hit the glass with a high energy laser,” says Dan Adams, Director of precision optics at Exelis in Rochester.

The technology, known as a Magnetorhological Finishing (MRF) machine, has applications in the testing of nuclear weapons and research into future sources of energy.

Adams says the lenses finished in the machine are currently being used in laser research into the ultimate renewable energy: nuclear fusion power.

To read the full article, click here.

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