National Ignition Facility demonstrates net fusion energy gain in world first
14 Dec 2022
Big gains: the record-breaking shot at the National Ignition Facility was made at just after 1 a.m. local time on 5 December. (Courtesy: LLNL)
Physicists working at a laser-fusion facility in the US have announced a world first – the generation of more energy from a controlled nuclear fusion reaction than was needed to power the reaction. They achieved this using the $3.5bn National Ignition Facility (NIF) – a football-stadium sized system of lasers based at the at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California. The laser shot, performed on 5 December, released 3.15 million joules (MJ) of energy from a tiny pellet containing two hydrogen isotopes – compared to the 2.05 MJ that those lasers delivered to the target.