Lawrence Livermore claims a milestone in laser fusion

Re:Lawrence Livermore claims a milestone in laser fusion by modeless on Tuesday August 17, 2021 @02:16PM (#28213073)

The article states that the reaction produced more energy than the fuel absorbed, not more energy than it took to run the lasers. I expect the efficiency of power transfer to the fuel is pretty low.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Lawrence Livermore claims a milestone in laser fusion by lambdatronics on Thursday August 19, 2021 @10:34PM (#28241823)

You're right, they had 1.8 MJ of photons hitting the target, but something like 400MJ of energy going into the laser, which is inefficient (<1%).

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Lawrence Livermore claims a milestone in laser fusion by modeless on Monday August 23, 2021 @01:07AM (#28272502)

Wow, I didn't guess that low. I guess it makes sense though.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Lawrence Livermore claims a milestone in laser fusion by jatone on Tuesday August 17, 2021 @05:17PM (#28214968)

also mentioned chain reactions which would be one way to generate more energy than input even if your input was high.

[ Parent | on HN ]