Carlos Hidalgo
Head of the Experimental Division of the National Fusion Laboratory, Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas (CIEMAT)
The practical realisation of nuclear fusion energy is one of the great challenges facing humanity in the 21st century.
The experimental results obtained at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) are of great scientific significance as they achieve for the first time an amplification of nuclear fusion energy of more than unity. This is a major scientific milestone.
The international scientific community is working on different alternatives (inertial and magnetic confinement) with varying degrees of development towards the practical realisation of nuclear fusion energy. The degree of integration of science and technology towards a nuclear fusion reactor differentiates the results of magnetic confinement (JET-2022) and inertial confinement (NIF-2022).