The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is a fusion facility that seeks to study fusion (ie, meet the Lawson[1] criteria) through compression of a tiny spec of tritium or deuterium-tritium ice inside of a cylindrical tube called a Hohlraum[2]. Achieving fusion in this case can be assessed by a simple energy balance, canonically referred to as the "Q" factor[3]. Q=1 implies the fusion process released the same amount of energy the input-laser put in to the reactor. Q=2 is largely accepted as the minimum viable criteria for a fusion-power reactor (one unit of Q to return to the reactor, one unit of Q to be exported to the grid, power conversion unit etc for actual use).
1.3MJ is the claimed number by the article, while impressive for inertial confinement fusion (ICF), it lacks the context that the laser-input-power is ~2-4MJ (ie a Q~0.5).
A bit more context: the best-of-the-best shots at NIF produce an idealistic energy balance that cannot sustain a reaction. There are a lot of other practical considerations such as how you would provide continuous power from the NIF Holhraums, what materials would stand up-to 100 DPA [4] damage from radiation bombardments, and a host of others.
An open secret is that NIF's purpose is not exclusively fusion.
Additionally JET appears to have a Q~0.67 according to wikipedia [3].
The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is a fusion facility that seeks to study fusion (ie, meet the Lawson[1] criteria) through compression of a tiny spec of tritium or deuterium-tritium ice inside of a cylindrical tube called a Hohlraum[2]. Achieving fusion in this case can be assessed by a simple energy balance, canonically referred to as the "Q" factor[3]. Q=1 implies the fusion process released the same amount of energy the input-laser put in to the reactor. Q=2 is largely accepted as the minimum viable criteria for a fusion-power reactor (one unit of Q to return to the reactor, one unit of Q to be exported to the grid, power conversion unit etc for actual use).
1.3MJ is the claimed number by the article, while impressive for inertial confinement fusion (ICF), it lacks the context that the laser-input-power is ~2-4MJ (ie a Q~0.5).
A bit more context: the best-of-the-best shots at NIF produce an idealistic energy balance that cannot sustain a reaction. There are a lot of other practical considerations such as how you would provide continuous power from the NIF Holhraums, what materials would stand up-to 100 DPA [4] damage from radiation bombardments, and a host of others.
An open secret is that NIF's purpose is not exclusively fusion.
Additionally JET appears to have a Q~0.67 according to wikipedia [3].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawson_criterion [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hohlraum [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusion_energy_gain_factor [4] https://gcep.stanford.edu/pdfs/UVaodfDrAb3BdgeRCpoy-w/10-Zin... slide 11.