NIF Sets Power and Energy Records | National Ignition Facility & Photon Science

Power conditioning operator conducts tests — Power conditioning operator Seth Robinson conducts tests in one of the four NIF capacitor bays. The capacitor bays house NIF’s power conditioning system. Credit: Damien Jemison.

In the early hours of March 10, 2009, NIF made laser physics history by firing all 192 laser beams into the heart of the Target Chamber, delivering 1.098 megajoules (MJ) of ultraviolet (UV) energy in a pulse lasting a few billionths of a second. The event marked the first time any laser facility surpassed the megajoule barrier, and it started NIF on a continuing journey to set more power and energy records.

“NIF’s users are always asking to use more energy in their experiments, because higher energies enhance the science NIF can deliver in support of the Stockpile Stewardship Program.”

—Mark Herrmann, LLNL Associate Director for Weapon Physics and Design

Thirteen years later, on Dec. 5, 2022, the NIF laser system fired 2.05 MJ of UV energy to the Target Chamber and achieved its decades-long quest for fusion ignition. The experiment produced more than 3 MJ of energy, 50 percent more than the energy delivered to the target (see Achieving Fusion Ignition).

Technician Inspects Plasma Electrode Pockel Cell — Senior optics assembly technician Frank Arredondo inspects the glass mid-plane section of a plasma electrode Pockels cell, an optical switch that enables NIF’s multi-pass amplification capability. Credit: James Pryatel

And on Oct. 30, 2023, NIF set a new record for laser energy, firing 2.2 MJ of energy for the first time on an ignition target. This experiment resulted in 3.4 MJ of fusion energy yield, achieving ignition for the fourth time.

Each milestone along the way gave scientists the ability to demonstrate the highest energy NIF can safely deliver with its optics and laser configurations, thus expanding the boundaries of the science NIF can explore. The journey required painstaking research to get the most out of NIF's Power Conditioning System and Amplifiers and thousands of precision optical components.

Optics are an essential element of the NIF laser system. Continuous research and development efforts have put NIF’s optics at the cutting edge of material science and technology and play a crucial role in raising the laser’s energy. These breakthroughs have reduced the level of damage initiation and growth in the optics and led to a reduced cost to mitigate existing damage spots.

Based on the successful 2.2-MJ demonstration, NIF is working with LLNL’s ignition program to further enhance its energy and power output through technology development and laser research.

NIF’s Power and Energy Milestones:

February 2009: NIF fires all 192 laser beams for the first time, sending an average of 420 joules of UV laser energy through each beamline’s final optics.
March 2009: NIF delivers 1.098 MJ of UV energy to the Target Chamber.
October-November 2010: NIF sets world records for laser energy delivered to an inertial confinement fusion target (1.3 MJ) and neutron yield (300 trillion neutrons), a measure of the amount of fusion energy generated.
December 2011: A 1.4-MJ layered cryogenic deuterium-tritium (DT) shot produces a yield of 7×10¹⁴ (700 trillion) neutrons.
March 2012: A 192-laser shot delivers 1.875 MJ of UV laser energy in a pulse 23 billionths of a second long.
July 2012: The NIF laser system delivers a record 500 terawatts (trillion watts) of peak power to its target. Five hundred terawatts is 1,000 times more power than the United States uses at any instant in time.
September 2013: A cryogenic layered DT implosion experiment generates about 5×10¹⁵ (five quadrillion) neutrons and about 14 kilojoules (kJ) of fusion energy, almost 75 percent more than NIF’s previous record yield set earlier in the year.
November 2013: NIF beams deliver a record 1.91 MJ of UV light to the drive hohlraum in a 15.8-nanosecond shaped pulse.
February 2014: A shot produces a total yield of 9.6×10¹⁵ neutrons, or 27 kJ of fusion energy.
August 2017: An experimental campaign generates a total fusion neutron yield of 1.9×10¹⁶ (19 quadrillion) and 53 kJ of fusion energy, nearly double the previous record.
January 2018: A shot produces a neutron yield of 2.0×10¹⁶ and 55 kJ of fusion energy.
May 2018: NIF delivers a record 2.15 MJ of UV laser energy to the Target Chamber, a 15 percent improvement over the facility’s 1.8-MJ design specification and more than 10 percent higher than the previous 1.9 MJ energy record set in March 2012.
February 2021: An experimental campaign achieves a fusion yield of 6×10¹⁶ (60 quadrillion) neutrons and 170 kilojoules of fusion energy output, triple NIF’s previous energy record.
August 2021: A NIF shot achieves a yield of more than 1.3 MJ, 25 times more than NIF’s 2018 record yield.
December 2022: A NIF experiment produces a yield of more than 3 MJ, 50 percent more than the laser energy required to initiate the fusion reaction, achieving fusion ignition for the first time in a laboratory.
July 2023: The NIF laser delivers 2.05 MJ of energy to the target, resulting in 3.88 MJ of fusion energy output, the highest yield achieved to that date.
October 2023: NIF achieves fusion ignition for the third time, with 1.9 MJ of laser energy resulting in 2.4 MJ of fusion energy yield. Later in the month, NIF sets a new record for laser energy, firing 2.2 MJ of energy for the first time on an ignition target. This experiment results in 3.4 MJ of fusion energy yield.
February 2024: A NIF experiment produces an estimated 5.2 MJ—more than doubling the input energy of 2.2 MJ.
April 2025: The eighth successful ignition experiment sets another record for energy yield, delivering 8.6 MJ, more than four times the 2.08 MJ of energy delivered to the target, further demonstrating that NIF can repeatedly conduct fusion experiments at multi-megajoule levels of energy output.

Photo of laser glas slab being installed — Workers install a laser glass slab in a line replaceable unit that was assembled in the NIF Optics Assembly Building cleanroom.

More Information

"LLNL’s NIF Delivers Record Laser Energy," NIF & Photon Science News, November 16, 2023

“National Ignition Facility Achieves Fusion Ignition,” LLNL News Release, December 14, 2022

“High-Laser-Energy Shot Puts NIF Back on Track Toward Ignition,” NIF & Photon Science News, November 7, 2022

“National Ignition Facility Experiment Puts Researchers on Threshold of Fusion Ignition,” NIF & Photon Science News, August 18, 2021

“NIF Sets New Laser Energy Record,” NIF & Photon Science News, July, 2018

“NIF Experiments Double Record Fusion Energy Yield,” NIF & Photon Science News, June, 2018

“Nature Article Reports on Fuel Gain Achieved in NIF High-Foot Experiments,” Photons & Fusion Newsletter, February, 2014

“NIF experiments show initial gain in fusion fuel,” LLNL News Release, February 19, 2014

“Laser fusion experiment yields record energy at LLNL’s National Ignition Facility,” LLNL News Release, August 26, 2013

“National Ignition Facility makes history with record 500 terawatt shot,” LLNL News Release, July 12, 2012

“Lawrence Livermore’s National Ignition Facility achieves record laser energy in pursuit of fusion ignition,” LLNL News Release, March 21, 2012

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