With 200 lasers and a peppercorn-sized fuel capsule, scientists inch closer to mastering fusion energy | CNN
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Scientists in California make a significant step in what could one day be an important solution to the global climate crisis, driven primarily by burning fossil fuels.

Scientists successfully replicate historic nuclear fusion breakthrough three times::Scientists in California make a significant step in what could one day be an important solution to the global climate crisis, driven primarily by burning fossil fuels.

    • Uranium 🟩@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      181·
      11 months ago

      Outta curiosity, how is fusion viable for bomb research? (Ignoring the fact that the world’s current nuclear arsenal is already incredibly powerful, and that 100mega ton bombs have been designed and 50Mton bombs have been tested)

      Edit: thank you to all for providing additional context, I see your point regarding more research is valuable for both weapons and energy research, though to say definitively that it is used for weapons research is neither here nor there.

      • pelya@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        11 months ago

        You can always run few extra experiments to make your hydrogen bombs smaller or more reliable.

      • skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
        1·
        11 months ago

        Currently fielded devices haven’t been tested, all you can do is to do some non-explosive tests and simulate the rest. Data from NIF are used in the latter

        • Uranium 🟩@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          4·
          11 months ago

          Thermonuclear bombs are a mixture of fission AND fusion, the amount of energy required to achieve fusion requires fission to provide said energy.

          Lasers igniting fusion is a bit of a more of a stretch to create a weapon from (the lasers require 300 mega joules of energy which in turn is 2mj of energy into the reaction and 3mj energy out); it may provide context and more information for fusion as a whole but that information is relevant to both weapons and energy research, not one or the other.