The OMEGA facility focuses 60 high-power laser beams are directed onto a millimeter-sized capsule that contains fusion fuel. The intense light produces large pressures, imploding the fuel at high velocities.

Nature – Tripled yield in direct-drive laser fusion through statistical modelling

A statistical approach was used to design and quantitatively predict the results of implosions of solid deuterium–tritium targets carried out with the 30-kilojoule OMEGA laser system. They achieved a tripling of the fusion yield to its highest value so far for direct-drive laser fusion. If this work scales to 63 times the power level then it would be at the power level of the National Ignition Facility. The National Ignition Facility can place 1.9 megajoules onto a fusion target. The OMEGA facility scaled result reproduced on the National Ignition Facility would produce fusion energy output of about 500 kilojoules. This would be several times larger than the fusion yields currently achieved at that facility.