If only they were shooting a fuel pellet: they are instead shooting a hohlraum, a precision-engineered piece of gold and that, in turn, shoots the fuel pellet with X-Rays, acting as a kind of aiming/synchronization device. The hohlraum is destroyed in the process, and currently costs millions of dollars to build a new one.
The hohlraum is destroyed in the process, and currently costs millions of dollars to build a new one.
Hohlraums are expensive but not millions of dollars. This 2004 report puts the cost at about $2500 each (still far too expensive for a power plant of course) while examining ways to get them under $1 each.
"Cost-Effective Target Fabrication For Inertial Fusion Energy"
However, the way they're realizing it by shooting a fuel pellet with lasers is unsustainable and impractical IMHO.