NIF achieves target gain greater than unity for the first time

Assembled from 72 blocks · 4 evidence · 30 related

1. Story
2. At the National Ignition Facility, 2.05 MJ of 351 nm ultraviolet laser light delivered to an indirect-drive target produced a total fusion yield reported in Physical Review Letters as approximately 3.1 MJ, and in the laboratory's public announcement as 3.15 MJ, giving a target gain of about 1.5 and significantly exceeding the Lawson criterion for ignition. This is scientific breakeven with respect to the laser energy delivered to the target, and it is the first time any laboratory achieved it. It is not wall-plug breakeven: firing that shot required on the order of 300 to 400 MJ drawn from the electrical grid, with about 330 MJ stored in the capacitor banks, an overall efficiency well below one percent. No electricity was generated. The Physical Review Letters paper reporting the result carried more than 1,370 authors from 44 institutions.
3. Knowledge
4. Inertial confinement fusion
5. National Ignition Facility
6. Lawson criterion
7. Fusion energy gain (Q) and target gain
8. Breakeven
9. Tritium
10. Deuterium
11. NIF achieves target gain greater than unity for the first time
12. Connections
13. National Ignition Facility
14. Inertial confinement fusion
15. Fusion energy gain (Q) and target gain
16. Breakeven
17. Lawson criterion
18. Tritium
19. Deuterium
20. Breakeven
21. Inertial confinement fusion
22. Fusion energy gain (Q) and target gain
23. NIF exceeds the Lawson criterion for ignition
24. NIF achieves target gain greater than unity for the first time
25. NIF repeats target gain and raises the yield to 3.88 MJ
26. NIF achieves ignition for the sixth time
27. NIF reaches 8.6 MJ yield and a target gain of 4.13
28. Tritium
29. Fusion triple product (n·T·τ_E)
30. National Ignition Facility
31. NIF exceeds the Lawson criterion for ignition
32. NIF achieves target gain greater than unity for the first time
33. NIF repeats target gain and raises the yield to 3.88 MJ
34. NIF achieves ignition for the sixth time
35. NIF reaches 8.6 MJ yield and a target gain of 4.13
36. National Ignition Facility
37. Joint European Torus (JET)
38. Breakeven
39. JET's DTE1 campaign sets the first deuterium-tritium fusion power record
40. NIF achieves target gain greater than unity for the first time
41. NIF repeats target gain and raises the yield to 3.88 MJ
42. JET sets the single-pulse fusion energy record of 69.26 MJ
43. NIF achieves ignition for the sixth time
44. NIF reaches 8.6 MJ yield and a target gain of 4.13
45. Commonwealth Fusion Systems' declared target for net energy gain at SPARC
46. National Ignition Facility
47. Fusion energy gain (Q) and target gain
48. Plasma-facing materials and first wall
49. NIF achieves target gain greater than unity for the first time
50. NIF reaches 8.6 MJ yield and a target gain of 4.13
51. Fusion triple product (n·T·τ_E)
52. NIF exceeds the Lawson criterion for ignition
53. NIF achieves target gain greater than unity for the first time
54. Tokamak (toroidal magnetic confinement)
55. Inertial confinement fusion
56. ITER
57. Tritium breeding blanket
58. Private fusion sector
59. JET's DTE1 campaign sets the first deuterium-tritium fusion power record
60. JET's DTE2 campaign releases 59 MJ in a single pulse
61. NIF achieves target gain greater than unity for the first time
62. JET sets the single-pulse fusion energy record of 69.26 MJ
63. JET ceases plasma operations after 105,842 pulses
64. ITER's declared target date for the start of deuterium-tritium operation
65. Tokamak (toroidal magnetic confinement)
66. NIF achieves target gain greater than unity for the first time
67. JET sets the single-pulse fusion energy record of 69.26 MJ
68. Evidence
69. On 5 December 2022 a NIF indirect-drive implosion achieved a target gain of 1.5, with 2.05 MJ of 351 nm laser light producing about 3.1 MJ of fusion yield and significantly exceeding the Lawson criterion for ignition
70. Sets out the physics design changes — reduced coast time and maximised hot-spot internal energy — behind the first laser indirect-drive experiment to exceed target gain of unity, and frames the result explicitly as scientific breakeven
71. The laboratory's own statement of the December 2022 energy figures, of the repeat target-gain shots in 2023, and of the 1,370-author PRL paper
72. The energy actually drawn from the grid to fire a NIF ignition shot exceeds the fusion yield by roughly two orders of magnitude, so target gain above unity is not wall-plug breakeven