Looks like the Americans where building this under they're energy strategy (fusion energy for USA) and it took at least 15 years only to build the facility and the technologies for it. It uses very advanced (one of a kind) optic technology to get the huge lenses in immense numbers.
It grows 800 lbs crystals in 2 month (standard technology was 2 years) in order to use them for building the lenses.
Let's hope they will share it with the world once technology perfected, although, I think this decision will be ultimately bound to defense strategy.
The whole project looks multi-billion like expensive and on a fast track.... as fast as possible, looking at the project building history stats.