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Re:US Department of Energy: Fusion Ignition Achieved by jacoblambda on Tuesday December 13, 2022 @02:15PM (#33974198)
Worth noting that the milestone achieved was positive Q_plasma (more energy out of the plasma than in).

They are using inefficient lasers because they are cheaper to buy/maintain/modify for research purposes.

Determining the conditions for positive Q_plasma is largely a matter of science/research so the external system doesn't matter as long as the variables are controlled and results are reproducible.

Once positive Q_plasma is well understood/reproducible, achieving positive Q_total (more energy produced than spent running the infrastructure) is just a matter of engineering and potentially waiting for the SOTA for components (like lasers or materials) to catch up.

TLDR: This is the scientists proving the theory. Now it's the scientists' job to refine the theory. Then the engineers get to put it into production.

Re:US Department of Energy: Fusion Ignition Achieved by moloch-hai on Tuesday December 13, 2022 @04:59PM (#33976560)
The theory was proven to everybody's satisfaction in 1950.

There will be no production, except of new, smaller thermonuclear warheads. That is their legislated remit.