← Signals
Recentdatescience

NIF reaches 8.6 MJ yield and a target gain of 4.13

NIF's lasers delivered 2.08 MJ to the target in a 456-terawatt peak-power pulse and produced approximately 8.6 MJ of fusion yield, a target gain of about 4.13 — more than doubling the previous 3.88 MJ record set in July 2023. The improvement was attributed to a custom high-density carbon (diamond) capsule. Target gain rose by roughly a factor of three between December 2022 and April 2025; wall-plug gain did not change, because nothing about the laser's efficiency changed.

Observed — measured or witnessed, with the observation cited.

Subjects

Evidence

Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.

Recorded on National Ignition Facility

  1. JET's DTE1 campaign sets the first deuterium-tritium fusion power record
  2. NIF exceeds the Lawson criterion for ignition
  3. NIF achieves target gain greater than unity for the first time
  4. NIF repeats target gain and raises the yield to 3.88 MJ
  5. JET sets the single-pulse fusion energy record of 69.26 MJ
  6. NIF achieves ignition for the sixth time
  7. NIF reaches 8.6 MJ yield and a target gain of 4.13
  8. Commonwealth Fusion Systems' declared target for net energy gain at SPARC

Related

Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.