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Kim Budil

Kim Budil

Director, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Appears in 1 story

Stories

The race to repeatable fusion ignition

New Capabilities

First woman to lead LLNL, overseeing ignition achievements

Los Alamos physicists achieved fusion ignition using a target that shouldn't have worked. On June 22, 2025, their THOR design—deliberately adding windows that leak crucial energy—generated 2.4 megajoules of fusion power at the National Ignition Facility. The shot created burning plasma, a self-sustaining reaction where fusion itself drives more fusion. It was ignition with a scientific instrument built in.

Updated Feb 2