Lawrence Livermore proved over 4X power gain from laser fusion in April 2025.
Upgrading to 3.0MJ laser power would take more upgrades but could deliver 20-40X gain. This would be well on the way to proving the 100-200X science gain that is believed to be needed for viable commercial fusion reactor designs. There would also need to be rapid fire improvements and many other developments to realize commercial fusion. This will be discussed in other articles on the plans of various commercial fusion companies.
The 2.6 MJ could achieve 10-26 MJ of power which would be 8-10X gain since 2.2 MJ reached 4.2X gain.
Tests have been made that indicate the current system could reach 2.6 MJ with fresh amplifier glass lens. NIF has bought and stored all of the original production of amplifier glass. The 2.6 MJ (and any midpoint between 2.2 MJ and 3MJ) has not been funded or approved. However, it would offer a lot of fusion bang for the buck to go to 2.6 MJ and then to make the modifications for 3 MJ. Timing and schedules are all highly uncertain but 2 years at 2.2MJ has been done. We need 2 years of testing at 2.6MJ and upgrading to 3.0 MJ.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.
If they can get the laser into a nice compact package, we could finally have fusion propulsion. The performance will probably be a far cry from what would needed for a Project Daedalus but it would good for getting around the solar system or taking a telescope to the distance needed for solar gravitational lensing (550 AU min).
Wow, nice work. The facility is old, not even primarily for nuclear fusion, some tech is old. They still did some great science to prepare the way for commercial companies with more funding, new tech to do it in reality.