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If I remember from the article/discussion from yesterday, "laser energy" is the energy in the laser beam, but creating that 2 MJ laser beam required 200 MJ.
by prewett 4y ago
If I remember from the article/discussion from yesterday, "laser energy" is the energy in the laser beam, but creating that 2 MJ laser beam required 200 MJ.
- JumpCrisscross 4y ago> creating that 2 MJ laser beam required 200 MJ NIF uses notoriously inefficient lasers. They lase fine. Just not efficiently. From what I've seen, that 200 MJ would be closer to 20 MJ with modern equipment. Still a gap! And there is still making the fuel, making and replacing the reactor as well as collection losses. But we're within two orders of magnitude of system break even, which is closer than we've ever been.