They're doing some interesting things with chemically-driven lasers that can generate extremely powerful pulses of short duration; it's not impossible that such charges could be arranged in a series to get the job done, but not in the immediate near future- I think. Whether such output would be better utilized in laser weaponry, in a rail gun, or some other development depends on research and breakthroughs in those fields, but I wouldn't sell any of them short. I'm reminded of the naval explosives expert who testified that atomic weapons were a scientific impossibility...until, of course, the Manhattan Project delivered. I wonder if that guy was just short-sighted, or a part of a disinformation program....
I know they did some real interesting things with spark photography so far as documenting early stages of a nuclear detonation, but that's way beyond my limited knowledge in the field. I've also seen some of the caps [still called *condensers* then] that came out of the Camp Hero site at Montauk, LI; some were about the size of a Volkswagon.
Thanks for posting that radar photo. There is a near identical buiding, minus the radar hardware, at an old radar base nearby that has been turned into a recreation park. I could never figure out the purpose of that building.