1997? I was getting power from Ed's CVLs back in 1982 and that was an upgraded incarnation of the previous Laser Fusion facility.

I understand the need to show Physics Breakeven before Engineering breakeven, but there needs to be a lot of parallelism in those two efforts. I think that we all remember how Ed was promising to a working laser fusion facility online in a decade.

Ed is a fantastic guy. I have huge respect for him, but Ed's long gone from the NIF (and from the Great Magellanic Telescope), and NIF is nowhere near Engineering Breakeven, let alone a working fusion facility.