New Laser Fusion Experiment Doubles Energy Output of Prior Breakthrough

Last month, scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's National Ignition Facility ("NIF") more than doubled the yield of its previous, record-setting fusion experiment.

NIF – the world's first facility to achieve a net gain fusion reaction – recently produced 8.6 megajoules ("MJ") of energy, blowing past its 2022 output of 3.15 MJ. Both experiments required roughly 2.1 MJ of laser energy.

Researchers and even investors are hailing the achievement as a significant step toward fusion's long-promised potential as an essentially infinite, clean-energy source...

A Big Leap Forward for Fusion

This fourfold target gain (energy out over energy in) sets a new record. And as TechCrunch notes, it highlights the dramatic improvement in efficiency since the original ignition success.

As you can see in the following chart, scientists have been making steady progress in creating more and more net-positive fusion energy.

Source: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

The lab's experts noted that they're ultimately targeting a 15x energy gain, the level required to operate with zero net electric demand.

NIF remains the only laboratory in the world to repeatedly demonstrate net-positive fusion energy – a distinction that solidifies the U.S.'s lead in this cutting-edge arena.

Fusion's Potential and Challenges

The recent leap in output underscores the potential for fusion to be a clean, virtually limitless power source.

Unlike traditional nuclear reactors, fusion produces no long-lived radioactive waste, using cheap, abundant fuel derived from hydrogen.

But major hurdles remain on the road... So far, NIF's triumphs are strictly proof-of-concept: The facility was built for physics experiments, not to feed the electric grid.

In fact, the much-publicized 2022 shot that yielded 3.15 MJ required roughly 300 MJ drawn from the wall to charge up NIF's laser system. In other words, the experiment consumed nearly 100 times more energy than it produced – a gap only partly addressed by the new higher-yield shots.

The good news for investors is that NIF's breakthrough is not occurring in isolation – it comes as part of a broader push to transform fusion from laboratory science into a real-world energy industry.

In April 2025, more than 200 fusion experts from U.S. national labs, universities, and private companies gathered in Breckenridge, Colorado for the inaugural IFE-STAR conference, an initiative to foster a national inertial fusion energy ecosystem.

Backed by the U.S. Department of Energy's Fusion Energy Sciences program, the meeting aimed to coordinate research and development across institutions and jump-start public–private collaboration on fusion technology.

What's Next for Fusion Investors?

And each incremental experimental gain at NIF is seen as laying a critical foundation for future fusion reactors.

After all, NIF is currently the only facility on the planet to achieve fusion ignition and net energy gain... proof that the physics of fusion can work outside of stars and hydrogen bombs.

The focus now is on turning these milestones into engineering reality...

In the coming years, NIF will continue to optimize its experiments, while new facilities and startups attempt to reach ignition in different ways – all racing toward the same ultimate prize: a reactor that produces significantly more energy than it consumes on a continuous basis.

Achieving that will likely require solving an array of technical challenges, from laser efficiency and rapid-fire repetition rates to advanced materials and energy conversion systems.

If scientists and engineers can keep advancing fusion at this pace, the coming era could witness something truly groundbreaking – what some are calling an "Amazon Helios" moment for energy, where the fusion power paradigm shifts from experimental labs to the foundation of a new clean-energy economy.