Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand say this afternoon they're launching a push to get more than $82 million in federal funding for the University of Rochester Laser Lab.
The Laboratory for Laser Energetics is one of the research facilities working to develop fusion energy as a power source...and it also does defense work. Schumer's office says the $82.4 million he and Gillibrand want would fund the lab's research program and experiments with the OMEGA laser, which is the second most powerful ultraviolet laser in the world.
The lab was established in 1970.