https://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/PT.6.2.20210817a/full/?af=R& TLDR: the National Ignition Facility at LLNL, the one that fires lasers at tiny capsules of deuterium and tritium to create fusion, has (probably) smashed their previous record of energy output (170kJ), and the fusion reactions are releasing more energy than they absorb, 1.3 MJ vs 250 kJ, or enough energy to boil 4 liters of water from a speck of dust. It's not quite the goal of ignition, which they define to be more total energy out than into the system, because the UV lasers pumped out 1.9 MJ, 85% of which is lost in the conversion to X-Rays. But they're clearly getting closer. Not clear yet whether they can just tweak the hohlraum to get up to ignition, or whether they'll have to eventually ditch it (the development of X-ray lasers would help, but those aren't coming anytime soon), but big news nonetheless.
Ignition (Progress) No I'm not tryin' to be rude, But hey pretty deut I'm feelin' you The way you fuse the things you fuse Remind me of a star, too That's why I'm all up in yo grill Tryna get you to so still I must be a laser grid The way I'm confining yo field So baby gimme that boom boom Lemme give you that pew pew Runnin' my beams through yo flow Megajoules and more While they sayin on the radio: "It's the progress to ignition. It's more output than input" Alpha fusin' that body Got all the tritium squishin' Inside a hohlraum It's like FREQUENCY PUMP It's the zappin' weekday baby Gonna go do something quantum Zap Zap Zap Zap Zap Zap Zap Zap Zap Zap
I got to go on a tour of that facility 7-8 years ago. Fascinating place. Star Trek Into Darkness had recently filmed there; the "warp core" is actually a functioning part of the ignition experiment, just set decorated a little. Progress is good, but it's very slow going. Practical fusion power is still many, many years away. Edit: it was 9 years ago.
