Ignition of a millimetre-sized pellet containing a mix of deuterium–tritium, published in 2022, puts to rest questions about the capability of lasers to ignite thermonuclear fuel.
Key advances
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An experiment at the National Ignition Facility, published in 2022, achieved ignition for the first time via inertial confinement fusion.
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This achievement comes on the back of other experiments in 2020–2021, which achieved the first demonstration of a burning plasma in the laboratory.
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These advances arise from a long series of improvements to the experimental design, and in turn suggest pathways to further increase the fusion yield.
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Acknowledgements
The author thanks O. Hurricane, A. Kritcher, A. Zylstra, C. Deeney and E. M. Campbell for thoughtful comments. This material is based upon work supported by the US Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration under award nos. DE-NA0003856 and DE-NA0003868, the University of Rochester, and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.
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Betti, R. A milestone in fusion research is reached. Nat Rev Phys 5, 6–8 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-022-00547-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-022-00547-y
