Inertial confinement fusion at high gain
Inertial fusion crushes a small fuel capsule so quickly that it burns before it flies apart; in December 2022 a laser-driven capsule first released more fusion energy than the laser light delivered to it. A power plant needs about ten times higher gain, which is limited by fluid instabilities, mixing of shell material into the fuel and uneven drive.
Why it matters
Inertial fusion power plants need target gains of roughly 30 to 100, far above what has been achieved.
Review
R. Betti, O. A. Hurricane, Inertial-confinement fusion with lasers, Nature Physics, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys3736 reference checked
Timestamp record
- Signed record
- 35a789f90b24…
- Public log
- Entry 301, in checkpoint 2,123
- In the log by
- Block 969,698, 2026-10-03
This text was in the PubPhys log by that date. The date says nothing about when the problem was first posed.