this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2023
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From what's read, those capacitors are needed to run the high wattage lasers, i.e. they need the charge to be stable and attempt to sustain self-sustaining reactions, the time they get for the reaction is the time it takes the capacitors to discharge. Doesn't seem like any of the headlines are doing anything but baseless hype acting like we have a reaction that created more enegry than was used to create it. Sure repeating the same reaction is progress but that's not what is being sensationalized, the cherry picked energy consumption vs production stats is and its extremely misleading.