The main advantage of this fusion reaction is that it is aneutronic, i.e. it doesn't produce any neutrons, so it is relatively safe.

Petawatt class lasers are nowadays possible and several examples exists (Los Alamos, Oxford central laser facility, ELI Prague, South Korea). The technology used to compress photons energy in short length pulses is called "Chirped Pulse Amplification". This opened the way to femtosecond laser pulses.