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A comment on Proxima Fusion looks to take stellarators commercial. Parent comment

Re:Proxima Fusion looks to take stellarators commercial by ben_w on Friday November 03, 2023 @11:41AM (#38130457)
IIRC, that specific issue is merely an implementation detail, much more efficient lasers already exist.

There are plenty of other problems to be solved, and a lot of room for higher gain — upgrading the lasers isn't worth caring about until those things have actually been done.

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Re:Proxima Fusion looks to take stellarators commercial by boxed on Friday November 03, 2023 @11:45AM (#38130522)
The efficiency in the lasers isn't off by 50%. They are off by SEVERAL orders of magnitude.

Plus the fuel pellets are too expensive anyway.

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Re:Proxima Fusion looks to take stellarators commercial by ben_w on Friday November 03, 2023 @12:24PM (#38130994)
Yes, I know.

NIF's lasers are, I'm told, less than 1% efficient; modern lasers can be 50%-80% if that's what is being optimised for.

There's no reason to bother upgrading those lasers until all the other issues are solved, and even then, as it's an experimental facility not a power station, they may well never bother even if it is the only thing holding them back from a gain of more than 1 as measured wallplug-to-wallplug.

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