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Sorry to piss on your parade, but..

"Soon after, the $3.5bn facility shifted focus, cutting the amount of time spent on fusion versus nuclear weapons research - which was part of the lab's original mission."

Admittedly that is phrased in an odd way...

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The showers continue. Budget pressures have NIF down to shooting three days a week. To make matters worse, DoE has decided to cut funding for high energy density physics, ie the field covering the physics needed to make NIF ignite and turn laser fusion into a viable electricity source.

Not thrilled about that part, but the "Soon after" refers to events past, not the success this article is about.

However, the latest experiments...

So, at least the fusion research is still funded and still moving.

This bit of the fusion research is mostly aimed at making small-scale experiments on weaponised nuclear fusion without having to set off nuclear bombs every other day. As a long-term energy source, it is assumed to be rather unusable.

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