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.
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?
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.
Ok, but isn't the gold thing also essentially destroyed in the process? As far as I understand, for it to work,it has to be supremely smooth, or ot fails to generate the required patterns. Can it be re-used for a second pulse, after it is exposed to the thermal stress of the millions of kelvins and the mechanical stress of the explosion?
So the extremely precisely machined piece of heavy metal is essentially part of the fuel. That seems like a no-go for commercial energy generation without any firther discussion.
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.