A method of thermonuclear fusion that attempts to compress the fusion fuel to the required density and temperature very quickly, so that the fusion reaction takes place before the residual fuel is blown apart by inertia. A typical inertial confinement method is laser-driven fusion, which uses the impact of powerful laser beams to compress a tiny pellet of frozen fuel. This approach has had a number of successes (e.g. passing the scientific breakeven in December 2022 by NIF), but is not yet heading towards energy applications.