# Do you think practical nuclear fusion energy will ever be a thing? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Tags:** science-math\ **Created:** [August 5, 2026, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-practical-nuclear-fusion-energy-will-ever-be-a-thing/1032173 "2026-08-05T23:19:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-practical-nuclear-fusion-energy-will-ever-be-a-thing/1032173/41 "2026-08-12T14:08:46Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Lawrence Livermore did succeed in producing a fusion explosion without a fission trigger, Really? I never heard of that. Got any pointers to information? ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-practical-nuclear-fusion-energy-will-ever-be-a-thing/1032173/42 "2026-08-12T15:21:36Z")
The National Ignition Facility is part of LLNL – they [managed to](https://www.nature.com/immersive/d41586-024-03745-z/index.html) get a fusion explosion out of a fuel pellet, using a huge laser array, and they say the energy output from the event was twice the net energy input. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-practical-nuclear-fusion-energy-will-ever-be-a-thing/1032173/43 "2026-08-12T15:41:30Z")
All thermonuclear energy projects will use non-fission initiation. The only fission-initiated fusion devices are weapons. (And, by a neat trick of symmetry, all thermonuclear weapons are fission-initiated.) ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2026, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-practical-nuclear-fusion-energy-will-ever-be-a-thing/1032173/44 "2026-08-13T11:16:26Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > fusion explosion out of a fuel pellet, using a huge laser array, a Oh, that. Sure. What they carefully avoid mentioning is the total amount of energy the whole apparatus consumed. We are still many orders of magnitude away from an actual fusion power plant. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2026, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-practical-nuclear-fusion-energy-will-ever-be-a-thing/1032173/45 "2026-08-13T18:44:14Z")
Even if they truly got a net gain of energy there’s the scaling up factor. What works in the lab does not necessarily work when large enough to make a difference. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2026, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-practical-nuclear-fusion-energy-will-ever-be-a-thing/1032173/46 "2026-08-13T21:38:05Z")
True, though in the case of fusion, I think it’s more likely to be the reverse: That you can’t get net positive at a small laboratory scale, only when it’s huge. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-practical-nuclear-fusion-energy-will-ever-be-a-thing/1032173.md?page=2)