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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 pfdietz on Monday December 19, 2022 @10:48AM (#34053429)
It should be noted that even if the lasers were 100% efficient, this result is not sufficient to achieve a practical fusion power plant. That target could produce maybe $0.02 worth of electrical energy. That's nowhere close to paying for the plant, even totally ignoring operating costs.

A real plant would need target yields 100 to 1000 times larger, with all the engineering issues that would entail.

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Re:Nuclear physicist explains why fusion ignition is hailed ... by Robotbeat on Monday December 19, 2022 @11:11AM (#34053732)
Of course, because you learn to spark fire before you build a power plant. NIF is nothing like a power plant. It was designed for stockpile stewardship and for fusion ignition demonstration, and they intentionally cancelled efforts to solve the engineering challenges of making this into a power plant, because doing so was premature without the ignition breakthrough. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_Inertial_Fusion_Energy
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