3 ms·
Has the first bullet (“ignition”) been achieved before, or is this the first time?
by tomp 4y ago
Has the first bullet (“ignition”) been achieved before, or is this the first time?
- oofbey 4y agoThis is not the first time. But it’s the biggest net gain so far by a good wide margin. Still a very long way to go before becoming similar to a fossil burning power plant. They got equivalent of 1 megawatt for a single second. A typical coal plant is hundreds of megawatts continuously.
- _ph_ 4y agoYes it has. For example JET achived 16 MW of fusion power output in 1997. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_European_Torus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_European_Torus) Its successor, ITER is supposed to produce more energy than used in creating the fusion process. It is still under construction in France.