NIF repeats target gain and raises the yield to 3.88 MJ
A NIF shot using 2.05 MJ of laser energy produced 3.88 MJ of fusion yield, then the highest yield achieved at the facility. It was one of three experiments in 2023 that achieved target gain greater than one, establishing that the December 2022 result was repeatable rather than a single fortunate shot. Repeatability is a physics milestone; it says nothing about facility power balance, which was unchanged.
Observed — measured or witnessed, with the observation cited.
Subjects
- National Ignition Facility · research facility · United States
- Inertial confinement fusion · confinement concept · not located
- Fusion energy gain (Q) and target gain · physical quantity · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
LLNL's breakthrough ignition experiment highlighted in Physical Review Letters / Achieving Fusion Ignition
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
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, National Ignition Facility & Photon Science · 2024-02 · Partly verified
LLNL news release and NIF programme page, lasers.llnl.gov/science/achieving-fusion-ignition and llnl.gov/article/50801; states 2.05 MJ in, 3.15 MJ out on 5 December 2022, and the 30 July 2023 shot at 2.05 MJ in, 3.88 MJ out
Recorded on National Ignition Facility
- JET's DTE1 campaign sets the first deuterium-tritium fusion power record
- NIF exceeds the Lawson criterion for ignition
- NIF achieves target gain greater than unity for the first time
- NIF repeats target gain and raises the yield to 3.88 MJ
- JET sets the single-pulse fusion energy record of 69.26 MJ
- NIF achieves ignition for the sixth time
- NIF reaches 8.6 MJ yield and a target gain of 4.13
- 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.
- NIF reaches 8.6 MJ yield and a target gain of 4.13 · 2025-04-07
- NIF achieves ignition for the sixth time · 2024-11-18
- Commonwealth Fusion Systems' declared target for net energy gain at SPARC · 2027
- JET sets the single-pulse fusion energy record of 69.26 MJ · 2023-10-03
- NIF achieves target gain greater than unity for the first time · 2022-12-05
- NIF exceeds the Lawson criterion for ignition · 2021-08-08
- JET's DTE1 campaign sets the first deuterium-tritium fusion power record · 1997