Editing Inertial confinement fusion (section)

==== Technical challenges ====
[[File:Electra Laser Generates 90K Shots.webm|thumb|alt=The Electra Laser at the Naval Research Laboratory demonstrated more than 90,000 shots over 10 hours at 700 joules. This kind of repetition rate would be needed for an IFC power plant. |The Electra Laser at the Naval Research Laboratory demonstrated more than 90,000 shots over 10 hours at 700 joules.<ref>Obenschain, Stephen, et al. "High-energy krypton fluoride lasers for inertial fusion." Applied optics 54.31 (2015): F103-F122.</ref>]]

Even if the many technical challenges in reaching ignition were all to be solved, practical problems abound. Given the 1 to 1.5% efficiency of the laser amplification process and that steam-driven turbine systems are typically about 35% efficient, fusion gains would have to be on the order of 125-fold just to energetically break even.{{sfn|Brueckner|1977|p=31}}

An order of magnitude improvement in laser efficiency may be possible through the use of designs that replace flash lamps with [[laser diode]]s that are tuned to produce most of their energy in a frequency range that is strongly absorbed. Initial experimental devices offer efficiencies of about 10%, and it is suggested that 20% is possible.{{Citation needed|date=February 2023}}

NIF uses about 330&nbsp;MJ to produce the driver beams, producing an expected yield of about 20&nbsp;MJ, with maximum credible yield of 45&nbsp;MJ.