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Scientists successfully replicate historic nuclear fusion breakthrough three times (edition.cnn.com)

submitted 11 months ago by L4s@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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Scientists successfully replicate historic nuclear fusion breakthrough three times::Scientists in California make a significant step in what could one day be an important solution to the global climate crisis, driven primarily by burning fossil fuels.

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[–] justJanne@startrek.website 4 points 11 months ago

NIF can't really ever reach Q>1. All the statements of having reached that only include the energy that reaches the capsule. The energy the lasers actually use is orders of magnitude larger.

This theoretical Q>1, where the plasma emits more radiation than it receives, have been reached by other reactors before.

But while tokamak or stellerator designs need a 2-3× improvement to produce more energy than the entire system needs, the NIF would need a 100-1000× improvement to reach that point, which is wholly unrealistic with our current understanding of physics.