I am attending the 2023 International Conference on Inertial Fusion Sciences and Applications where there have been numerous presentations by leaders of the LLNL NIF team. I have also spoken with several of the speakers.

The Big 3 recent results were:

1. Aug 8, 2021 1.9 megajoules (MJ) of laser power was fired at a target which resulted in the release of 1.35 megajoules (0.72 return)
2. Dec 5, 2022 2.05 megajoules was fired at a target which resulted in the release of 3.15 megajoules (1.54X gain)
3. July 30, 2023 2.05 megajoules was fired at a target which resulted in the release of 3.88 megajoules (1.9X gain)

After Aug 8, 2021 there were several shots that did not reach a megajoule of returned power. There was a lot of work improving the targets and adjusting how the lasers were fired. The power of the entire system was increased by 8% from 1.9 MJ to 2.05 MJ. The quality of the targets had to be improved. They had to prevent three different major kinds of errors.

Keeping the system working at 2.05MJ or even 1.9MJ is difficult. The system is operating beyond its designed levels of 1.8MJ. The NIF system has damage that has to be repaired after shots are made.

There is software autotuning to calculate the adjustments to the laser pulse the target (holhraum).

There are plans to increase the power to 3 MJ which would conservatively deliver more than a 10X gain and 30 MJ.

They have already prepared the NIF lasers and facility to operate with 2.2 MJ shots. The first 2.2 MJ shot are calculated to deliver 5-10 MJ. Modifying the target shape from a pill capsule like shape to one with a wide centerline with two stacked trapezoids could deliver over 10 MJ using 2.2 MJ of laser power.