My understanding is that the NIF was primarily to explore weapons research in the guise of fusion research.<p>We could use some nuclear miracles to help out with decarbonizing and it seems like we'd be better served investing in something that <i>could</i> possibly become viable (especially with the recent superconductor news).
I know the cognitive dissonance is a bit heavy for some people on this topic but we already have fusion. Safire plasma can run for days uninterrupted on less than 300 watts of continuous input.<p><a href="https://rumble.com/vbtfff-safire-project-update-2017-and-2018.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://rumble.com/vbtfff-safire-project-update-2017-and-201...</a>