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CatalyticDragon t1_j3vckhh wrote

The reaction lasted for 5 microseconds.

And the power required to get it was 300-400 megajoules of grid power to create a 2.05-megajoule laser shot which yielded 3.15 megajoules of energy output.

Getting 0.9% the energy returned for a small fraction of a second is a breakthrough, of sorts, but fusion power remains many decades away from being a reality and even then it'll only be a reality in niche (military, space) applications.

It's complex, expensive, and produces massive amounts of waste heat, so it's just not really compelling when it goes up against dirt cheap renewables.

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