Re:US Department of Energy: Fusion Ignition Achieved
by IgorPartola on Tuesday December 13, 2022 @03:50PM
(#33975565)
I keep getting lost in the numbers here. What was the net gain/loss for the entire system? Without the “lasers are 1% efficient at 20% energy loss with 40% energy transfer loss” and all that.
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Re:US Department of Energy: Fusion Ignition Achieved
by zbobet2012 on Tuesday December 13, 2022 @04:20PM
(#33975982)
The net gain of the entire system at NIF doesn't matter, because the system at NIF was never designed to make a net gain.
People are estimating how this result moves the equation for an overall system that is designed for power production. Most numbers I have seen still leave a theoretically optimal power plant producing around a 30% loss in power with this number.
Re:US Department of Energy: Fusion Ignition Achieved
by joosters on Tuesday December 13, 2022 @04:18PM
(#33975949)
They needed roughly 500MJ of energy to power the lasers and produce the 2.5MJ of energy, so the net loss was... about 500MJ.
Re:US Department of Energy: Fusion Ignition Achieved
by nine_k on Tuesday December 13, 2022 @04:03PM
(#33975752)
AFAICT: There's a large net gain compared to the energy emitted by the lasers. There is still a considerable loss compared to the energy consumed by the lasers.
While at it: I don't think the NIF approach will ever be applicable to commercial power generation on Earth. But I hope it will be one day applicable to a fusion-based rocket engine.