text: The National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California reported in 2021 that it had triggered ignition in the laboratory on 8 August 2021, for the first time in the over-60-year history of the ICF program. The shot yielded 1.3 megajoules of fusion energy, an 8-fold improvement on tests done in spring 2021. NIF estimates that the laser supplied 1.9 megajoules of energy, 230 kilojoules of which reached the fuel capsule. This corresponds to a total scientific energy gain of 0.7 and a capsule energy gain of 6.  While the experiment fell short of ignition as defined by the National Academy of Sciences – a total energy gain greater than one – most people working in the field viewed the experiment as the demonstration of ignition as defined by the Lawson criterion.
  In August 2022, the results of the experiment were confirmed in three peer-reviewed papers: one in Physical Review Letters and two in Physical Review E. Throughout 2022, the NIF researchers tried and failed to replicate the August result. However, on 13 December 2022, the United States Department of Energy announced via Twitter that an experiment on December 5 had surpassed the August result, achieving a scientific gain of 1.5,
  surpassing the National Academy of Sciences definition of ignition.