YSK: the recent fusion breakthrough at NIF is NOT a self sustaining fusion device, and we're nowhere close. Context: "researchers at the US National Ignition Facility created a reaction that made more energy than they put in" - a headline sweeping the world since its official announcement days ago. That’s a lie (sort of).Why YSK: “It’s a big milestone, but NIF is not a fusion-energy device,” says Dave Hammer, a nuclear engineer at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York (1).The term "ignition" is being thrown around a lot, but it's being used incorrectly. The reaction is not self-sustaining, and it doesn't provide a total net positive.Fusion is years away, but our climate disaster is here. Waiting for fusion isn't going to solve our problems, but pretending it soon will negate all the progress we've made toward actual clean & sustainable energy sources. What did the NIF researchers actually achieve?They achieved what's known as breakeven, which "compares the total energy being given off to the energy being used to heat the fuel (2)."while the fusion reactions may have produced more than 3 megajoules of energy — more than was delivered to the target — NIF’s 192 lasers consumed 322 megajoules of energy in the process" (ibid 1).Isn't that a good thing?Of course, it's an amazing breakthrough! The most recent record was only able to achieve 72% energy gained back from how much was put into heating (3).