![cover image](https://wikiwandv2-19431.kxcdn.com/_next/image?url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a7/Electra_Laser_Generates_90K_Shots.webm/640px--Electra_Laser_Generates_90K_Shots.webm.jpg&w=640&q=50)
Inertial fusion power plant
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Inertial Fusion Energy is a proposed approach to building a nuclear fusion power plant based on performing inertial confinement fusion at industrial scale. This approach to fusion power is still in a research phase. ICF first developed shortly after the development of the laser in 1960, but was a classified US research program during its earliest years. In 1972, John Nuckolls wrote a paper predicting that compressing a target could create conditions where fusion reactions are chained together, a process known as fusion ignition or a burning plasma.[2] On August 8, 2021, the NIF at Livermore National Laboratory became the first ICF facility in the world to demonstrate this (see plot).[3][4] This breakthrough drove the US Department of Energy to create an Inertial Fusion Energy program in 2022 with a budget of 3 million dollars in its first year.[5]
![Conceptual design of the LIFE fusion power plant.](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/01/LIFE_power_plant.jpg/320px-LIFE_power_plant.jpg)
![NIF target gain over 11 years shows a ten-fold increase in 2021 due to the achievement of ignition.](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ad/NIF_output_over_11_years_without_legend.png/640px-NIF_output_over_11_years_without_legend.png)