Inertial confinement is one of the primary methods being researched globally to achieve controlled fusion. The other main approach, magnetic confinement, uses strong magnetic fields to contain and compress plasma to induce fusion.
“For the last six decades, LLNL researchers and their colleagues have been working to achieve one of the most challenging goals in all of science and a primary objective of NIF: fusion ignition,” remarked the Lab.
The facility was not designed for continuous power output; for example, the 2022 net-positive shot required approximately 300 megajoules to operate the laser system alone. The experiments serve as continued demonstrations of controlled nuclear fusion principles.