• 420blazeit69 [he/him]
      ·
      6 months ago

      I'd imagine, but I found this interesting:

      Currently the maximum Q value achieved by humans is 1.53.

      Had no idea someone had managed to get more energy out of a fusion device than they put in. Must have been unable to sustain it for any significant length of time, but still seems important.

      • Owl [he/him]
        ·
        6 months ago

        The Q=1.53 was done at the National Ignition Facility using inertial confinement fusion, which is significant for plasma research (and probably bombs), but can't be used to generate power.

      • Biggay [he/him, comrade/them]
        ·
        6 months ago

        It was big news I want to say about a year ago when a team first published that they had done it

      • QuillcrestFalconer [he/him]
        ·
        6 months ago

        Also this is just plasma gain, not whole system gain. To have a commercially viable reactor your probably need Q total > 10 at least. No system build so far even has a Q total of 1

      • impartial_fanboy [he/him]
        ·
        6 months ago

        It was the NIF two years ago but it's also not going to be generating power ever, it was just a demonstration/proof of concept.