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Fusion Breakthrough Hits Hurdles as Five Experiments Fail
- helsinkiandrew 4y agohttps://archive.is/OI1Ez https://archive.is/OI1Ez
- iab 4y ago> without being able to replicate the results Not really failure to replicate if the conditions are different.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- mikhailfranco 4y agoThe one-off result and announcement from December 2022 seems to be linked to the funding cycle for NIF at LLNL. For example: That’s why I’m also proud to announce today that I’ve helped to secure the highest-ever authorization of over $624 million this year in the National Defense Authorization Act for the ICF program to build on this amazing breakthrough. https://www.llnl.gov/news/lawrence-livermore-national-laboratory-achieves-fusion-ignition https://www.llnl.gov/news/lawrence-livermore-national-labora... NIF was designed to simulate nuclear weapons, and only switched to fusion power R&D to win continued funding when the military sponsors shifted towards supercomputer simulations. In fact, the energy from that 2022 test was not breakeven - it was only ~1% of the total energy input. Inertial confinement does not seem to be a promising route to commercial fusion.