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Great video from David Pogue on the National Ignition Facility: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rI5-wASmzQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rI5-wASmzQ If you

Great video from David Pogue on the National Ignition Facility: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rI5-wASmzQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rI5-wASmzQ If you watch the video it looks like it was shot earlier this year, but it is 10 years old. And yet, the video mentions 192 lasers (so that hasn't changed in 10 years), and they also mention that even after ignition is achieved, "laser fusion won't be able to power a city until a plant can fire 100s of shots a minute." Interesting quote from a skeptic in the video: "We'll see pigs fly before we see ignition at the National Ignition Facility".

mhneu 4y ago
the improvements have come in confinement and fuel if this approach works, you'll see laser innovation over time to improve energy per shot. You'll also see engineering to contain the released neutrons so everything in there doesn't get made radioactive.
hajile 4y ago
EUV lithography is interesting. You drop a microscopic droplet of tin. You then aim and shoot it not once, but twice with a laser so it produces the correct wavelength. Then you do this with 100% reliability thousands of times per second all day, every day for years. The problem doing this with fusion seems to be money. Their "big" grant of 600M wouldn't even buy a handful of those machines and wouldn't come close to the many billions it has cost in the past 30+ years of research to reach the point where they are finally viable (it had been "a few months away" ever since the early 2000s). This video from Asianometry on EUV light sources is well worth the watch. It's pretty incredible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ge2RcvDlgw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ge2RcvDlgw
- jl2718 4y ago
  Yes. If we ever need an extremely expensive isotropic point source of high-flux fast neutrons to do anything useful, then this is a good start. Currently, the only hopeful use is for simulating nuclear weapons.

mhneu 4y ago

the improvements have come in confinement and fuel if this approach works, you'll see laser innovation over time to improve energy per shot. You'll also see engineering to contain the released neutrons so everything in there doesn't get made radioactive.

hajile 4y ago

EUV lithography is interesting. You drop a microscopic droplet of tin. You then aim and shoot it not once, but twice with a laser so it produces the correct wavelength. Then you do this with 100% reliability thousands of times per second all day, every day for years. The problem doing this with fusion seems to be money. Their "big" grant of 600M wouldn't even buy a handful of those machines and wouldn't come close to the many billions it has cost in the past 30+ years of research to reach the point where they are finally viable (it had been "a few months away" ever since the early 2000s). This video from Asianometry on EUV light sources is well worth the watch. It's pretty incredible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ge2RcvDlgw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ge2RcvDlgw

jl2718 4y ago
Yes. If we ever need an extremely expensive isotropic point source of high-flux fast neutrons to do anything useful, then this is a good start. Currently, the only hopeful use is for simulating nuclear weapons.