The Inertial Fusion Root to Fusion Energy

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Inertial fusion technology and science is at the level where now they have this demonstrated that they can do it once. And in order to go to energy production, you will have to reproduce this in time. The big advantage of fusion is the fact that it's not a chain reaction. It's something that cannot lead to an explosion or to something like this.

This week, researchers at the US National Ignition Facility in California achieved a major breakthrough in nuclear fusion. For the first time, humans have harnessed the process that powers the stars to generate more energy from a fusion reaction than was used to start it — otherwise known as ‘ignition’. But how close are we to moving this from laboratories to power plants, and will it become the clean, safe, and abundant source of energy the world so desperately needs? Ian Sample speaks to Alain Bécoulet about what’s being called ‘one of the most impressive scientific feats of the 21st century’. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod