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The author does celebrate it but points out something that the media should have: "So this news is both good and bad. Hats off for cracking into single-digit y
by jahnu 3y ago
The author does celebrate it but points out something that the media should have:
"So this news is both good and bad. Hats off for cracking into single-digit yield! But that leaves less room to improve. Even at 100% efficiency, we’d get just 25 times more energy out, or 75 MJ. That’s still not enough to pay for the price of admission (400 MJ, just for the laser part)."
- mjamesaustin 3y agoThe author also misses a really relevant fact, that modern lasers are an order of magnitude more efficient, so the 400MJ would be dramatically less, low enough to pass breakeven.
- jahnu 3y agoIn fairness I don't think it's up to the author to speculate or do original research to make their point (that the media failed to do basic reporting on the experiment). Maybe there are modern lasers that are more efficient but then shouldn't they prove they are suitable enough for the task and do that experiment and report it?