Science & technology | A brouhaha about fusion

Controlled fusion is little nearer now than it was a week ago

Despite excited reports, the NIF’s announcement will not lead to civil fusion reactors

The preamplifiers of the National Ignition Facility are the first step in increasing the energy of laser beams as they make their way toward the target chamber. NIF recently achieved a 500 terawatt shot, 1,000 times more power than the United States uses at any instant in time. July, 2012. — Image: NIF

Dec 13th 2022

On December 13th America’s energy secretary, Jennifer Granholm, announced that the country’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) had lived up to the “I” in its name, by achieving ignition. The stuff ignited was some pellets of a frozen mixture of deuterium and tritium—isotopes of hydrogen that have, respectively, one and two neutrons in their nuclei in addition to the single proton that is hydrogen’s nuclear characteristic.

This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Cool it!”