National Ignition Facility

The laser facility that achieved target energy gain in 2022 by inertial confinement.

Type

Inertial confinement

Milestone

Target gain, 2022

The National Ignition Facility uses powerful lasers to compress fuel pellets, and in 2022 achieved fusion energy exceeding the laser energy delivered to the target — a landmark for inertial confinement.

It marks a different, pulsed route to fusion than Kronos's continuous magnetic approach.