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Re:Secretary Granholm to announce major scientific breakthro... by Robotbeat on Tuesday December 13, 2022 @10:46AM (#33970371)
This is not how it works at all. The confinement is produced for a tiny fraction of a second by the inertia of the fuel pellet casing which is driven inward by ablation from a powerful pulse of light. It’s the same basic mechanism as an H-bomb, except unlike an H-bomb, this uses lasers instead of a fission (A-bomb) trigger. And is MUCH smaller.
Re:Secretary Granholm to announce major scientific breakthro... by aj7 on Tuesday December 13, 2022 @12:41PM (#33972532)
You left out a whole step. The X-rays.
Re:Secretary Granholm to announce major scientific breakthro... by Robotbeat on Tuesday December 13, 2022 @01:12PM (#33973149)
Because NIF can also potentially use the UV lasers directly, without converting to X-rays in the Hohlraum. Direct drive would be more practical for an actual power plant version: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_Inertial_Fusion_Energy#M...

So instead of “x-rays” I left it as the more general “light.”