The NIF uses lasers produced in the 90's because their core mission isn't to make lasers better. We already have lasers which are 20x more efficient, and hitting a pellet 10*s is a trivial task. Those lasers can fire a 1khz or better. The EUV light sources for semiconductor lithography do this tens of thousands of times a second.
The goal of the research being done at NIF is to understand inertial confinement fusion. "Solving" these other problems isn't as important, other folks are solving these all day long for commercial industries already.
The goal of the research being done at NIF is to understand inertial confinement fusion. "Solving" these other problems isn't as important, other folks are solving these all day long for commercial industries already.