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Villad_rock t1_j2nmc1d wrote

What does net electricity mean? Does it account for literally every energy which is used for the reactor?

I read about a story of a laser ignited fusion which achieved net positive the first time which actually meant more power was generated than the laser needed. But you don’t only operate the laser.

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Homie4-2-0 t1_j2nprrk wrote

From what I recall, net electricity accounts for everything and net energy is what you're referring to with the lasers. Zap is aiming for net electricity by 2026. (they call it engineering breakeven IIRC) Also, keep in mind that the experiment at NIF was done using old lasers. If they had used newer lasers, they would have produced more energy than the overhead involved in running the experiment.

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