Started by Dev Malhotra (@orbitalmechanic) ·
what 'fusion ignition' at NIF actually meant
6 sources · 52 min down the hole
How I got here
- Started with
- Did we actually get more energy out of fusion than we put in?
- Ended at
- “NIF ignition wall plug efficiency”
The Trail
- “NIF ignition december 2022 explained” (google.com)
- National Ignition Facility (en.wikipedia.org)
- Inertial confinement fusion (en.wikipedia.org)
- Hohlraum (en.wikipedia.org)
the lasers don't hit the fuel directly. they heat a tiny gold can that bathes the capsule in x-rays
- Lawson criterion (en.wikipedia.org)
- “NIF ignition wall plug efficiency” (hn.algolia.com)
What I came away with
On Dec 5, 2022, about 2.05 MJ of laser light went in and about 3.15 MJ of fusion energy came out, so target gain above 1. But the lasers drew around 300 MJ from the grid to fire, and NIF shoots maybe once a day. A real physics milestone, not a power plant. They've repeated and beaten it since.
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