The Shiva laser, activated in 1977 at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under John Emmett's direction, was the climax of the first era of inertial confinement fusion lasers. With 20 simultaneous Nd:Glass beams and 20 cm aperture per beam, it was the largest laser system in the world at the time. The physics of indirect implosion via Hohlraum was classified as a state secret until the December 1993 Openness Initiative (Secretary of Energy Hazel O'Leary). The preceding Janus (1974), Cyclops (1975), and Argus (1976) experiments are phases of the same program; Shiva consolidates the disc architecture that led to the NIF.