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0 pointsJStanton6173y ago0 comments

The loss just on the lasers is 100x (i.e. delivered power is 1% of the input energy). Add in a combined cycle effeciency of only 50%, you're looking at needing a 200x improvement to have commercially relevant "net gain"

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DennisP3y ago

Yes but NIF's lasers date back to the 1990s, and laser technology has improved a lot since then. NIF-class lasers with over 20% efficiency are available now.

https://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/pt.6.2.2021102...

Same article mentions that some petawatt lasers can fire more than once per second now.

sbierwagen3y ago

>Add in a combined cycle effeciency of only 50%

Some reactor designs let you harvest electricity directly from charged ions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_energy_conversion

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