The Sandia National Laboratory stated that materials used in tests have proved durable enough to achieve net energy gain from a fusion reaction in the next few years. One major challenge with fusion energy is finding the right materials that can hold up during a fusion reaction, which involves high temperatures and pressure. From the article:

Magnetically imploded tubes called liners, intended to help produce controlled nuclear fusion at scientific “break-even” energies or better within the next few years, have functioned successfully in preliminary tests, according to a Sandia National Laboratories research paper accepted for publication by Physical Review Letters (PRL).

It went on to explain the significance:

That the liners survived their electromagnetic drubbing is a key step in stimulating further Sandia testing of a concept called MagLIF (Magnetized Liner Inertial Fusion), which will use magnetic fields and laser pre-heating in the quest for energetic fusion.

In the dry-run experiments just completed, cylindrical beryllium liners remained reasonably intact as they were imploded by huge magnetic field of Sandia’s Z machine, a powerful pulsed-power accelerator. Had they overly distorted, they would have proved themselves incapable of shoveling together nuclear fuel—deuterium and possibly tritium—to the point of fusing them. Sandia researchers expect to add deuterium fuel in experiments scheduled for 2013.

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