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Ignition in the case of ICF means that, for the brief time while the shockwave from the initial laser burst is still keeping the plasma together, you get to fuse all of the D+T in your pellet. Once the initial velocity is lost, the high-temperature He dissipates away.

Not ahcieving ignition means that the plasma cools too rapidly and the fusion reaction stops even before the brief microseconds of inertial confinement are lost.

Perhaps if you could deliver enough energy to a large enough pellet, you could use this to build a bomb, but today it is far too small for that, and the reaction wouldn't work with a larger fuel pellet (the geometry that allows the extreme pressures needed for fusion would not be easily achieved with a larger pellet, since even the wave-length of the laser is relevant at this level).




Not all of it, no; your understanding of "ignition" is incorrect. cf. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28842919




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