Four decades, ICF has been predicted to reach break even at one kilojoule (kJ) of energy in 1972, then 5 kJ, 10kJ, 100kJ, 200kJ, and finally 1.8 MJ by 1979 and

Four decades, ICF has been predicted to reach break even at one kilojoule (kJ) of energy in 1972, then 5 kJ, 10kJ, 100kJ, 200kJ, and finally 1.8 MJ by 1979 and the construction of three generation of lasers that all proved the predictions wrong. The NIF is the fourth shot at this, and has a target performance about an order of magnitude less power that what experimental tests (using nuclear weapons) indicate is needed to be directly supplied to the fuel.