Annie Kritcher

New Capabilities

Lead designer for historic December 2022 ignition achievement

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