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During the first run, the ZEUS team will start the laser up at a power of 30 terawatts (30 trillion watts), which is roughly three percent of the output of the most powerful lasers in the U.S., and only one percent of ZEUS's eventual maximum power. When at full power, it will have an impressive maximum power of three petawatts, or three quadrillion watts.

The first target area for the laser is called the high-repetition target area, which is used for more frequent but lower-power laser pulses. This will be used to help explore a new type of X-ray imaging. Michigan alum Franklin Dollar, an associate professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California Irvine, is leading that investigation.

Dollar and his team will use ZEUS to send infrared laser pulses into a gas target of helium in order to turn it into plasma. The plasma then accelerates electrons to high energies, producing extremely compact X-ray pulses. These could potentially be used in medicine to greatly reduce the amount of radiation applied to a patient while taking X-ray images of soft tissue and tumors.

"We could see every little organ as well as the tiny micro hairs on its leg," Dollar explained. "It's very exciting to think of how we could use these laser-like X-rays to do low-dose imaging, taking advantage of the fact that they're laser-like rather than having to rely on the absorption imaging of the past."

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The most powerful laser in the U.S. will have a three-quadrillion-watt maximum output - Interesting Engineering