Efforts to harness the power of fusion have consumed more energy than the fusion reactions generated, up until now. U.S. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers report the first fusion reaction in a laboratory setting that actually produced more energy than it took to start the reaction.

On December 5, 2022, 192 lasers at LLNL’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) blasted and vaporized the hollow cryogenic target hydrogen encased in diamond, generating the energy needed to compress a deuterium-The hohlraum device houses the type of cryogenic target used to achieve ignition on December 5, 2022. Source: LLNLtritium pellet. The process instigated ignition, confirming that the energy generated by fusion equals or exceeds the energy of the incoming lasers that start the reaction.

The ignition threshold was surpassed as the system delivered 2.05 megajoules (MJ) of energy to the target, resulting in 3.15 MJ of fusion energy output.

This latest experiment has achieved the ignition goal that was promised when construction of the NIF started in 1997 and bodes well for posting progress in the promise of inertial fusion energy.