3 ms·

Divorced from both cynicism and hype, how does this compare to the recent advance in hohlraum laser fusion? https://www.llnl.gov/news/lawrence-livermore-nation

• gpm 4y ago
  It's a completely different approach to fusion. Lasers are really inefficient (poor at transforming electrical energy into light energy). They got more energy out than they put into the pellet, but nowhere near as much energy as they put into the lasers. Which means that turning that experiment into commercial fusion is... "not straightforward".
  • DennisP 4y ago
    NIF's lasers are only 1% efficient but they date back to the 1990s. Equivalent modern lasers are over 20% efficient. If they had modern lasers they'd have produced fusion power of about 20% of the input power. They seem to scale well, too. In their big shot they increased the laser power by 8% and output went up 230%. That said, compared to Helion it'd still be a lot harder to make a practical reactor with NIF's approach.
• pfdietz 4y ago
  It's much more promising than the laser approach, IMO.