The NSSR completes a 5000W laser (research cohorts: Kalmar Union, Canada, German Empire), although getting higher power will be really tough without high-temperature superconductors, of which we are fairly close. Instead, we research single laser pulses that quickly overheat the gun and so are far too high-wattage to be used consistently. Because they can't be fired continuously and are a large burst of energy at once, they're measured in joules. We start at 5000J, and unless anyone speaks up, I'm going to assume that the Kalmar Union, Canada, and Germany are still working on it with us.
We begin looking into medical applications for nanotechnology...