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A comment on Nuclear physicist explains why fusion ignition is hailed as a major breakthrough. Parent comment

Re:Nuclear physicist explains why fusion ignition is hailed ... by headsoup on Monday December 19, 2022 @07:10AM (#34051172)
But isn't the 'net positive', itself only a factor in the very last stage of all of the input energy required for ignition? So they need to factor in all other components before looking at these orders of magnitude being useful?
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Re:Nuclear physicist explains why fusion ignition is hailed ... by tadfisher on Monday December 19, 2022 @09:09AM (#34052181)
Yes, but that is still a breakthrough.
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Re:Nuclear physicist explains why fusion ignition is hailed ... by throwawaymaths on Monday December 19, 2022 @09:48AM (#34052654)
No, it's not. If you get to arbitrarily define at what point you count "energy in" (as the NIF people are), you could also define a clever spot for MCF to be net positive.
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Re:Nuclear physicist explains why fusion ignition is hailed ... by donquixote25 on Monday December 19, 2022 @11:55AM (#34054371)
NIF's definition of Q was defined by the National Academy of Sciences and is analogous to the Q that MCF uses.
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