With the price of oil projected to possibly reach $150 a barrel by the end of the summer, the need for new sources of energy is becoming more urgent by the day. What if a gallon of water could be converted into the energy equivalent of 300 gallons of gasoline?

Researchers at the UR's Laboratory for Laser Energtics are exploring that possibility. Though there is no commercial use today, the UR's work with two of the world's most powerful lasers could one day turn our energy problems into a revolutionary boon.

In a relatively nondescript brick facility on East River Road, researchers at the UR have been studying fusion technology since the early 70's. Most people associate fusion with the devastating power of thermonuclear weapons. But researchers have been trying to harness fusion technology for commercial use, primarily to generate electric power.

"This would be the ultimate source of clean, safe, and sustainable energy," says John Soures, one of the lab's managers. "It could change everything."

Fusion reactors would be used to generate electricity, instead of power plants burning coal or oil. The electricity could be used to power everything from a dishwasher to a subway train.

The best thing about fusion is that its key fuel ingredient is derived from sea water, a source that is cheap and virtually inexhaustible.

The biggest challenge in the research has been generating the level of heat needed - literally millions of degrees- to cause a fusion reaction. Lasers, if the science is perfected, could be the answer.

Unlike the Medical Center, which is teeming with people, the laser lab is situated in an almost pastoral setting. It's quiet, sedate, and nerdy. The lab is home to two lasers. The original, named Omega, can release several trillion watts of energy in bursts that are as powerful as the country's entire electrical generating capacity. Omega occupies a large, sterile-looking white room about the size of a gymnasium. Glass and silver tubing, some containing lenses and mirrors, direct Omega's light pulses to a compression chamber that looks a bit like a giant steel soccer ball. Think of a pinball machine. Instead of a metal ball bouncing off plastic pedals, laser beams pulse through tubes until they are filtered into pure streams of intense ultraviolet light. And they can target the tiniest objects with extreme precision.

The lab's scientists, in their white "clean suits," use a system of steel walkways to navigate around the tubing to monitor and adjust the speed and intensity of the laser. Periodically, a voice comes over the lab's loud speaker announcing the time remaining before the next test begins, a warning for everyone to clear the room where Omega is housed.

The experimental tests, which are conducted daily, can be observed from a viewing area behind a glass wall. Dimly lit with blue floor lighting, the décor is a mix of Star Wars and techno modern - something, Soures says, visitors seem to expect.

The Omega laser produces a high-powered beam of light that can tightly focus extreme heat. But researchers learned the level of heat needed to create electricity from a fusion reaction requires an even higher intensity - about 100 million degrees Celsius, 10 times hotter than the interior of the sun.

"What we're really doing is replicating the sun on a very small scale," he says.

Officials at the UR recently unveiled a second laser, Omega EP. Using four ultrahigh intensity laser beams, Omega EP can unleash a "petawatt" of power - energy 1,000 times more powerful than the original Omega. The lab's researchers believe that Omega EP can be used in conjunction with Omega to create the highest concentrations of energy ever achieved in a laboratory setting - high enough to get a fusion reaction.

Professor Robert McCrory, the lab's director, says lack of funding after Three Mile Island and Chernobyl scared the public and delayed fusion research. The result, he says, has been detrimental to the US's long-term energy policy.

Given the urgency of the country's energy needs, McCrory says people want to know how soon this technology can be used to heat homes or charge a cell phone battery. And he is often asked if a Manhattan Project-style effort is needed.

"Yes and no," he says. "It's not just a matter of funding. It's going to take time, maybe decades. And a lot depends on our national will. Even if we had the technology, our distribution ability hasn't kept pace."

Until the day that fusion technology has practical uses, which could be 30 years from now, McCrory says the public will need to reconsider safer models of nuclear- powered reactors like those used in France. Considering the price of oil, nuclear reactors would buy time until fusion technology can be perfected.

The US, he says, is in a box without any quick solutions. What we really need, McCrory says, "is a comprehensive energy policy."