Well, if we go to the original story,
BBC News - Nuclear fusion milestone passed at US lab
We find no mention of shutdown theatre at all in the BBC article, which makes things a bit clearer. This paragraph stands out:
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n 2009, NIF officials announced an aim to demonstrate nuclear fusion producing net energy by 30 September 2012. But unexpected technical problems ensured the deadline came and went; the fusion output was less than had originally been predicted by mathematical models.
Soon after, the $3.5bn facility shifted focus, cutting the amount of time spent on fusion versus nuclear weapons research - which was part of the lab's original mission.
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Also, the CBSNews article contains this rather interesting sentence:
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However, ITER (the French fusion effort) scientists aim to conduct experiments in burning plasma.
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Which is markedly different from the BBC article, showing that the CBSNews article is factually incorrect.
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However, ITER will take a different approach to the laser-driven fusion at NIF; the Cadarache facility will use magnetic fields to contain the hot fusion fuel - a concept known as magnetic confinement.
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