[BrianOnHN]

More energy output than input such that output powers the input and so is a firehose of free money until energy no longer has monetary value.

The initial investment may be scary, but I think this is discounted per people's experience with Moore's law (whether right or wrong).

[myrmidon]

> until energy no longer has monetary value.

"Energy too cheap to meter" was already an obvious scam with nuclear power in 1954* (because plants obviously cost TONS of money to build/operate/decomission).

I don't see how fusion power is going to change that.

edit: * "Obvious scam" might be a bit harsh, but it was definitely naive overenthusiasm at the very least.

[dabeeeenster]

I understand the first cycle of the process - my question is how do you repeat the cycle?

[BrianOnHN]

I'm trying to ELI5 here, so, "keep dropping heavy-water pellets and pulsing laser beams."

[dabeeeenster]

That doesnt sound simple to me. But maybe it is?

[motoboi]

A single pellet contains a lot of atoms. The current process is able to fuse some of those but soon the plasma cools down.

The goal is to start fusion by compressing the pellet using lasers and then use magnets to keep the plasma (charged, very hot gas/thing) confined to a small volume and hot enough so fusion becomes a chain reaction until all atoms of the pellet becomes a heavier element, when fusion stops (because a much higher temperature and pressure is required to fuse those).

This will generate a lot of energy which you car harness capturing the heat (by stoping the neutrons it emits or other method).

Use that heat to vaporize water to very high temperatures and use the high pressure to squeeze it through a pipe and then to push a generator.

So, this is a pulse thing. Pellet, laser, fusion, discard. Repeat.

[tsimionescu]

In this case, is the pellet the highly precise gold holhraum described in the article? If that is the case, then isn't this whole thing obviously doomed to failure, given that the entire advancement described consisted of even more sophisticated methods of producing that holhraum?

[motoboi]

The gold thing houses the pellet. It’s needed because the lasers by itself cannot compress the pellet. It’s the heat from the lasers that causes the gold thing to compress the pellet to the infernal pressure needed to trigger fusion.