Achieving Fusion…again! NIF surpass their own record for energy generated #shorts #breakthrough

[ash]

Golden Diamond Laser Core. Sounds like the final upgrade of an item

[matthewkendall]

A reactor powered by shooting a gold and diamond capsule with 200 lasers sounds like a part of a sci-fi movie that would get rewritten for being too unrealistic.

[luke-ilnr]

Using gold and diamond makes it sound like a ridiculous crafting recipe from a Minecraft technological modpack

[blackinferno]

people think the fusion argument is "lets re-invent fire" forgetting that we're basically trying to figure out how to rub two sticks together the best at the moment

[brianmccracken]

I love that I might live long enough to see fusion power be a real thing.

[Mikeboye]

"The power of the sun in the palm of my hand." -Dr. Octavius

[TheCerealkiller]

"Do you people still use fossil fuels, or have you discovered crystallic fusion?" -Buzz Lightyear

[chrisgreen]

I used to work there. It was amazing to see the progress and the success at each mikestone. Shout out to Cryo team! Good work guys!

[albertiteracion]

The NIF's (National Ignition Facility) ICF (Inertial Confinement Fusion) Reactor achieved a Fusion Gain Factor of 154% (Q = 1.54), however, this is only the thermal energy created by the laser. The 3.15 MJ energy of the fusion was yielded from 2.05 MJ thermal energy created by the lasers. The lasers needed about 300 MJ of electrical energy to produce the needed 2.05 MJ thermal energy, which means there is actually only about 1% energy output compared to energy input as a whole.

[DJRaffa]

To be fair, the input energy is what the laser energy that rescued the capsule amounts to. Not what was drawn from the wall.
If i recall correctly the lasers run at -20% efficiency-, i've been informed that lasers of this kind are even less efficient and are around 1% instead of 20. So they pulled quite a lot more from the grid as they gained from the Fusion.

Then again its still a remarkable achievement and marks a milestone in fusion technology.

[TchIdiot]

I live like 10 minutes from the lab, and my dad works there- I remember when I saw on the news and both of us were really happy

[Botaccount]

Hey, guys! Currently an undergraduate nuclear engineering major studying fusion mechanics and reactor operations. What the NIF did here is pretty impressive! But it will legitimately never be super useful in commercial nuclear fusion generators. The amount of start-up energy required in the lasers makes the whole process incredibly expensive. It also takes weeks, if not months, to plan each attempt. The research we're getting out of the NIF helps other companies with expected/necessary conditions to start a reaction, but not much else.

[alexshank]

Every tiny step, forward or backward, compounds our understanding of a constant sustainable fusion reaction. And one day a fusion reactor. Hopefully, in my lifetime.

[AnthonyNelms-nhko]

It amazes me how gold, diamond and silver and known to be riches but they also play a pivotal role in tech. Quartz too!. It really is magic!

[JonathanScarlet]

Just the fact that we can create even an infinitesimal fraction of the energy released by the Sun every second, and that we can briefly go energy-positive as a result, is amazing.

[hcblue]

"Deuterium and tritium spheres trapped in a diamond, suspended in gold cylinders" sounds like some over-the-top thing a sci-fi writer will just sprinkle into their script but wtf how is it real 😆

[Iightbeing]

Honestly one of the coolest projects that is publicly acknowledged. Absolutely love everything about it.

[JakubS]

Note: The energy "gained" is about 1% of the energy used to power the lasers, which is not counted in the power output calculation

[FacetiousEnigma]

I am in awe that humans actually managed to fuse atoms together.

[MrJCMG]

My wife’s cousin is one of the engineers working on that project at Livermore. Her role is really technical and I can’t begin to pretend I understand any of it, but it’s cool to see this doing the rounds.