US scientists evaluate their options after failing to replicate record-setting experiment from 2021.
Inside the target chamber at the US National Ignition Facility, scientists focus 192 laser beams on a gold capsule containing deuterium and tritium, in an attempt to achieve nuclear fusion.Nearly one year ago, scientists at the world’s largest laser-fusion facility
Some researchers in the community had long questioned the NIF’s usefulness, and for them, the entire episode highlights the facility’s remarkable achievements — as well as its fundamental limitations. “I think they should call it a success and stop,” says Stephen Bodner, a physicist who formerly headed the laser-fusion programme at the US Naval Research Laboratory in Washington DC.
Hurricane says the team’s analysis of those experiments indicates that inconsistencies in the fabrication of the target and inevitable shifts in the laser’s performance owing to its age produced minute, but important, differences in the shape of the implosion. “We understand why the repeat shots performed the way they did,” he says, “but we’re still trying to pin down what exactly about these engineering aspects we need to control better.
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