Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough....What Does This Mean?

[kyphysics]

Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough Confirmed: California Team Achieved Ignition​

BY JESS THOMSON ON 8/12/22 AT 9:20 AM EDT
https://www.newsweek.com/nuclear-fusion-energy-milestone-ignition-confirmed-california-1733238

For those of us not literate in the field, how significant is this and what are the prospects for a true energy transformation from here?

 

[hutchphd]

It is an incremental improvement past an arbitrary "milestone". Don't count your neutrons before they hatch.

 

[Frabjous]

It is an incremental improvement past an arbitrary "milestone". Don't count your neutrons before they hatch.

I would not chacterize ignition as an arbitrary milestone. One the other hand, I am not selling my oil stocks.

 

[bob012345]

Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough Confirmed: California Team Achieved Ignition​

BY JESS THOMSON ON 8/12/22 AT 9:20 AM EDT
https://www.newsweek.com/nuclear-fusion-energy-milestone-ignition-confirmed-california-1733238

For those of us not literate in the field, how significant is this and what are the prospects for a true energy transformation from here?

Of course the National Ignition Facility is going to claim achieving ignition is a big success since it's in the name but the reality is a sport-stadium size laser is not going to bring about an era of cheap fusion. The main purpose of the NIF is nuclear weapons research, not practical fusion.

Also, it seems NIF has not been able to repeat the experiment of August 2021 so has resorted to 'confirming' the earlier result.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-02022-1