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Comment by p_j_w | Hacker News Reader

This is already used for nuclear weapons research, which is why it's under Dept. of Energy.

Not really. I mean, yes, nuclear weapons are a thing, but Dept. of Energy supports many many directions not related to nuclear weapons. Physics research is mostly funded by DOE Office of Science or the National Science Foundation.

It's an explicit goal of the NIF to better understand the physics of fusion for weapons research. Not the main one but it's pretty important!

My point was: NIF would be funded via DOE whether or not it's relevant for weapon research. Sorry for not have been clearer.

If it was already decided to be funded, yes it would have been under DoE. Though I believe the weapons aspect had a very major contribution in deciding for it to be funded at all. It was proposed shortly after the nuclear testing ban and has been a big part in fulfilling that area.

I'm not trying to correct you, but adding context for the weapons aspect.

Yes, you are right, the funding decision was probably influenced by the weapons research.

I'm no expert, but I think you have it backwards. My understanding is NIF raison d'etre is weapons research, with a power generation being a secondary concern. It got funded because of weapons research regardless of whether it was relevant to fusion power generation.

It may surprise people, but the DOE is the government body that is responsible for nuclear weapons research in the US.

That doesn’t follow. The DOE covers a bunch of energy research that has no relationship to nuclear weapons (e.g. solar).

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