– US scientists announced in December 2022 that their laser-powered fusion reaction had 'broken even', producing more energy than it consumed
– A series of papers detailing the experimental design, technological advancements, and results of the initial breakthrough reaction have just passed peer review
– Nuclear fusion promises an abundant, inexhaustible source of clean energy without the greenhouse gas emissions of fossil fuels or the radioactive waste of nuclear fission
– Lab-based reactions are a far cry from commercial-scale applications, mimicking the fusion reactions powering our Sun and stars on a tiny scale
– Researchers have fired more energetic lasers and produced even more energy in several experiments last year
– The latest experiment generated 3.88 MJ of energy from the same 2.05 MJ energy input, the highest yield to date
Huge amounts of energy are used to power the lasers in these experiments: 500 trillion watts,
or a thousand times more power than the US national energy grid produces at any instant
– Commercial nuclear fusion facilities are still decades away.