That’s only because they’re using old school flash pumped lasers, not the new solid state lasers you’d use today if you wanted to make a power plant demo.
a typical power price at trading hubs is US$40 per megawatt hour, though this varies considerably depending on many factors and is sometimes actually negative
a typical retail price is US$120 per megawatt hour
so this is about US$10 worth of electrical energy
Upgrading the lasers would slow the project down as new hardware is installed and issues are worked out. Not to mention I doubt the new hardware is cheap, and may be more expensive than burning excess energy using old laser tech in the meantime.
Other research groups work on laser efficiency, and the "final product" using this method (if it ever proves viable) would put together all the best pieces to get the best efficiencies.
You don't need to use efficient lasers to get the scientific results they're after - other people have already very accurately measured the properties of modern lasers, so we can predict how they would perform without having to actually use them.
Good to hear that there's a laser design that might achieve that.
So the NIF is supposed to give a testbed to study implosion created fusion reactions that produce enough energy to "ignite", that is, propegate the reaction to the rest of a hypothetical bomb. In that case, the amount of energy needed for the infrastructure to produce the initial implosion doesn't matter, what matters is that the energy coming out is more then the actual energy that triggered the reaction, so that the hypothetical bomb would blow up and not fizzle.
Not even ask questions, not something like "hey, I saw this tweet, I know it's just a tweet, but can someone help me understand context?", no, you actually go ahead and criticize work that you know nothing about, and when confronted, you double down.
On some level, you must know yourself that it might be better to ask as many unloaded questions as you want, but otherwise sit this one out in terms of assessment.
I get that people are emotional about this, but it’s important to treat science with a critical eye.
The claim is that more energy came out than was put in. This is false.
It’s not just me saying it. https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRVP5Pmg/
There is no “context” to understand. Yes, it’s an impressive feat. Yes, other laser designs might fix the huge ignition costs. But that hasn’t happened yet, and until it does, it’s completely fair to point that out.
Will it win me any friends? Probably not. It’s like showing up to a party and saying the reason for the party is mistaken. Very few people care.
But scientists should, and I am one. Doubly so for incorrect reporting to laymen. We have a responsibility to convey what was actually achieved, not what we wish was achieved.
They are using inefficient lasers because they are cheaper to buy/maintain/modify for research purposes.
Determining the conditions for positive Q_plasma is largely a matter of science/research so the external system doesn't matter as long as the variables are controlled and results are reproducible.
Once positive Q_plasma is well understood/reproducible, achieving positive Q_total (more energy produced than spent running the infrastructure) is just a matter of engineering and potentially waiting for the SOTA for components (like lasers or materials) to catch up.
TLDR: This is the scientists proving the theory. Now it's the scientists' job to refine the theory. Then the engineers get to put it into production.
There will be no production, except of new, smaller thermonuclear warheads. That is their legislated remit.
No one (except perhaps poor science "reporters") is claiming that this means we now have free and cheap fusion power. Of course the energy put in to operate the lasers themselves needs to be accounted for -- and it is! -- but that doesn't make what they've achieved useless. It's also useful to remember that the researchers involved are not the people writing press releases and articles; let's not minimize their achievement just because of sloppy, sensationalist reporting.
I like the analogy downthread of a kid being excited about scoring a home run in baseball, but the dad chastising the kid for celebrating before actually winning the game. That's what it feels like is happening here.
This is a huge step in the right direction, and it should be celebrated as such.