Novel features of the dynamics and energetics of clusters and nanodroplets driven by ultraintense, femtosecond, near-infrared laser pulses pertain to the establishment of energetic records for Coulomb explosion. Theoretical–computational studies demonstrated the attainment of table-top production of deuterons in the energy range of 1–10MeV by extreme Coulomb explosion of deuterium nanodroplets/microdroplets with the initial size domain 100–1000nm (number of constituents 5×10 8 –10 11 ), which were driven by superintense lasers with peak intensities of 10 17 –10 20 Wcm −2 . This ultrahigh energy range establishes an energetic record for chemical dynamics. New aspects of ultraintense laser-nanostructure interactions involve laser intensity attenuation within the nanodroplet/microdroplet, and a proper treatment of the coupled system with the nanostructure size being comparable to the laser wavelength. Attenuation effects determine an upper size limit of 1μm of the nanodroplet/microdroplet for useful extreme Coulomb explosion with an energetic upper limit of 10MeV for deuterons produced by this table-top process.