I thought ignition had been achieved a long time ago. Is the article saying this is the first time for this particular lab to achieve ignition, or have I confused my fusion hype-terminology? I genuinely can't tell, as the article is written in Hype rather than English...
The Univ. of CA lab that operates NIF has an entire public relations department, paid for by US taxpayers, whose purpose is to generate this hype in order to influence Congress (they are the ultimate audience for all of this) to keep spending more US taxpayer money on NIF. NIF's real purpose is stockpile stewardship, so the funding is not really in jeopardy; but they always want more.
