The Czech Republic is opening a new scientific center that will include what officials call the world's most powerful laser device.

Commissioned and funded by the European Union, the Extreme Light Infrastructure facility will be used for research in fields such as cancer diagnostics and treatment, biology, chemistry and astrophysics.

An international team of scientists from the EU and other countries including the United States, Canada, China, India and Russia will be based at the almost $340 million facility based in Dolni Brezany, located just south of Prague.

Once the facility is installed by the end of 2017, they will have a system of four lasers "with intensities 10 times higher than those currently achievable."

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