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The Mirror Fusion Test Facility (2023)
A decade-long effort to build a machine to unlock the promise of nuclear fusion fell victim to budget constraints and competing science, and was shut down the day it was dedicated. It was never turned on.
Having achieved "ignition" for the first time on December 5, 2022 by creating a reaction where more energy is released than consumed, it turns out a third approach was the key to success: containing the plasma within high powered lasers. In fact, the successful ignition employed another huge, expensive machine – this one equipped with 192 massive lasers all focused on a tiny pellet, pounding it with 2 million joules of energy, creating a fusion reaction that only lasted for 100 trillionths of a second. "Crossing this threshold is the vision that has driven 60 years of dedicated pursuit — a continual process of learning, building, expanding knowledge and capability, and then finding ways to overcome the new challenges that emerged.
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