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Can somebody explain, what exactly is "ignition"? If even a single helium atom is fused you have "more energy than you have put into it". That does not seem impressive.

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No, you have more energy than two separate helium atoms.

You haven't counted the energy required to make them fuse in the first place.

There is a nice Sankey diagram at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Ignition_Facility#Sys... showing where the energy losses go.

this may help: https://lasers.llnl.gov/science/ignition

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