Researchers in nuclear fusion reached a critical milestone on 5 December 2022. On that day, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) demonstrated for the first time that a controlled nuclear fusion reaction could produce more energy than the energy put into it. The reaction yielded 3.1 MJ of energy from an energy input of 2 MJ.1 In 2023, a similar experiment released 3.9 MJ of energy for the same energy input.
The accomplishments at NIF were made possible by inertial confinement fusion (ICF).1 In ICF a powerful energy source, typically a laser, is used to heat and compress fuel to such a high temperature and density that the fuel cannot be equilibrated by any mechanical or electromagnetic forces. Therefore, once compressed, the fuel remains confined only because of its own inertia, and that’s when the fusion reaction takes place. The fuel stays compressed until it’s naturally...
