Because their mandate is to study a different part of the puzzle from what the laser researchers do. The NIF uses really old laser tech, and in parallel the wor

Because their mandate is to study a different part of the puzzle from what the laser researchers do. The NIF uses really old laser tech, and in parallel the world has moved onto 20x more efficient lasers. The NIF just wanted to prove they could get a laser (bad one) to hit a pellet and the pellet would send out more energy than the laser put on it. Improving the laser, improving the pellet materials, improving transfer from pellet to usable energy are all different problems being solved by different people.