Global energy demand is projected to rise by about 15 percent by 2050 compared to 2023. The largest growth is expected in global electricity demand, nearly doubling due to increased electrification.
A pickup truck filled with fusion fuel has the equivalent energy of 2 million metric tons of coal, or 10 million barrels of oil.
One emerging technology that can help meet this demand is nuclear fusion. Fusion can potentially provide an abundant and safe source of reliable primary energy. Commercial fusion energy has the potential to revolutionize the energy industry, help achieve energy abundance and security, and help meet the growing energy needs of the United States and the world. Fusion may also potentially provide a combined source of energy in the form of heat and power for hydrogen production, industrial heat, carbon capture, and desalination.
One fusion concept being studied at LLNL is a laser-based inertial fusion energy (IFE) system that would build on the inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiments conducted on NIF in support of the National Nuclear Security Administration's science-based stockpile modernization program. IFE promises a viable development path toward laser-powered safe and sustainable fusion energy.
The nuclear power plants in use around the world today use fission, or the splitting of heavy atoms such as uranium, to release energy for electricity. A fusion power plant, on the other hand, will generate energy by fusing atoms of deuterium and tritium, two isotopes of hydrogen—the lightest element. Deuterium is extracted from abundant seawater, and tritium is produced by the transmutation of lithium, a common element in the Earth’s crust and oceans.
When the hydrogen nuclei fuse under the intense temperatures and pressures in the NIF target capsule, a helium nucleus is formed and a small amount of mass lost in the reaction is converted to a large amount of energy according to Einstein’s famous formula E=mc2.
Needed: Energy Gain
Harnessing the energy of the sun and stars to meet the Earth’s energy needs has been a scientific and engineering challenge for decades. While a self-sustaining fusion burn leading to fusion ignition has been achieved for brief periods under experimental conditions, the total amount of energy that went into powering the lasers was far greater than the amount of energy it generated.
What’s needed next, for fusion energy to supply a continuous stream of electricity, is net energy gain—more energy produced by the fusion reactions than the energy required to operate the facility. The National Ignition Facility was the first ICF facility to demonstrate ignition—as much or more energy produced than the amount of energy consumed by the target. NIF reached that milestone on Dec. 5, 2022, when an ICF experiment generated more than 3 megajoules (MJ) of fusion energy—50 percent more than the 2.05 MJ of ultraviolet laser energy deposited on the target. That achievement has since been repeated multiple times. NIF’s fusion targets are potentially capable of releasing 10 to 100 times more energy than the laser energy required to initiate the fusion reaction.
Achieving ignition is helping provide the data and insights, such as the energy requirements, target designs, and laser drivers, needed to make decisions on how to pursue IFE. An IFE power plant will have to operate at high repetition rates (5 to 20 pulses per second) while delivering an energy gain of about 10 per pulse. Recently LLNL designed and developed the world’s first petawatt (quadrillion-watt) laser system—the High-Repetition-Rate Advanced Petawatt Laser System (HAPLS)—capable of operating at 10 pulses per second. HAPLS is now supporting high energy density, materials science, medicine, biology, and industry experiments at the ELI-Beamlines Facility in Czechia (the Czech Republic).
In 2022, with researchers on the brink of achieving ignition at NIF, LLNL launched the IFE Institutional Initiative to explore the requirements for an IFE power plant. In December, 2023, the Laboratory was named by the U.S. Department of Energy to lead the IFE Science and Technology Accelerated Research for Fusion Innovation and Reactor Engineering (STARFIRE) Hub, a four-year, $16-million project to accelerate IFE science and technology.
In the wake of its repeated ignition achievements, LLNL in 2025 expanded the initiative into the Livermore Institute for Fusion Technology to establish public-private partnerships that will advance the national goal of commercial fusion energy.
A fusion power plant would operate continuously to meet demand and would not require geological disposal of radioactive waste. A fusion power plant would also present no danger of a meltdown.
Because nuclear fusion offers the potential for virtually unlimited safe and sustainable energy, the U.S. Department of Energy has made fusion a key element in the nation’s long-term energy plans, with investments in both IFE and magnetic fusion energy and with the ability to leverage the investments from the National Nuclear Security Administration’s defense programs that support NIF.
More Information
"The Age of Ignition," a NIF & Photon Science News Special Report
“LLNL Experts Help Advance Inertial Fusion Energy at U.S. IFE Conference,” NIF & Photon Science News, May 7, 2026
“LLNL Releases Generalized Economics Model for Fusion Energy,” LIFT News, January 28, 2026
“LLNL Receives Energy Department Funding for Fusion Energy Research," NIF & Photon Science News, September 25, 2025
“Big Ideas Lab Podcast Explores the Future of Fusion Energy," NIF & Photon Science News, March 19, 2025
“The Fire That Powers the Universe: Harnessing Inertial Fusion Energy," NIF & Photon Science News, December 1, 2024
“LLNL-Led Team Receives DOE Award to Establish Inertial Fusion Energy Hub,” NIF & Photon Science News, December 7, 2023
“Nuclear Fusion and the Future of Energy,” NIF & Photon Science News, October 12, 2023
“Ignition Gives U.S. ‘Unique Opportunity’ to Lead World’s IFE Research,” NIF & Photon Science News, February 2, 2023
Read more IFE-related stories from NIF & Photon Science News
