Nuclear fusion breakthrough 'an enormous game changer,' Constellation Energy CEO says
Grace O'Donnell
·Assistant Editor
Technicians use a service system lift to access the target chamber interior for inspection and maintenance at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory federal research facility in Livermore, California, United States in 2008. Philip Saltonstall/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory/Handout via REUTERS
Recent years have shown more promising results, partly due to improved technology and a growing appetite for zero-carbon energy. Donut-shaped reactors using large magnets have been able to extend the time of the reaction. Earlier this year, one such reactor in China set a record for the longest sustained nuclear fusion reaction at 17 minutes. Other tests have claimed to reach a breakeven point, meaning the energy output equaled the energy put into the test.
The development at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory has seemingly gone further. The National Ignition Facility (NIF) uses a different method of causing fusion by directing powerful lasers at a capsule of hydrogen atoms to generate the pressure and heat necessary.
According to The Financial Times, which first reported the news Sunday, preliminary results show ignition took place, producing 2.5 megajoules of energy, or 120% of the energy that was consumed by the lasers.
That marks a long-awaited advancement in what has been considered a moonshot technology for decades. However, there's still a long runway ahead to move from small reactions in laboratory settings to commercial nuclear reactors.
Specifically, nuclear fusion won't help the world reach its 2030 net-zero targets. It may start to come into play by 2050.
“I still think we're decades away,” Dominguez said. “But this development, where we're now getting more energy out of the reaction than we're putting in to create the reaction, is a gigantic milestone.”
Grace O'Donnell is an editor for Yahoo Finance.
How nuclear fusion works, and why it's a big deal for green energy that scientists made a 'breakthrough'
Paola Rosa-Aquino
Tue, December 13, 2022
Engineers work at the National Ignition Facility in California's Lawrence Livermore Laboratory.David Butow / Contributor
US Department of Energy scientists produced a nuclear fusion reaction with a net energy gain.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's National Ignition Facility achieved the milestone on December 5.
Fusion energy advocates say it's a step forward in clean, cheap, and almost limitless electricity.
Scientists have made a "breakthrough" in their quest to harness nuclear fusion.
The US Department of Energy officially announced the milestone in fusion energy research on Tuesday.
For the first time, researchers created a nuclear fusion reaction that produced more energy than they put into it.
The experiment, conducted on December 5 at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, generated 3.15 megajoules of energy, more than the 2.05 megajoules put into creating it.
"Scientifically, this is the first time that they showed that this is possible," Gianluca Sarri, a physicist at Queen's University Belfast, told New Scientist. "From theory, they knew that it should happen, but it was never seen in real life experimentally."
What is fusion energy and why is it a big deal?
This illustration shows how lasers heat a target to the necessary conditions for nuclear fusion to occur
A view of Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant, in Leningrad, Russia on September 14, 2022.
·Assistant Editor
Tue, December 13, 2022
The U.S. Department of Energy announced a breakthrough in nuclear fusion on Tuesday that puts the world one step closer to harnessing an abundant energy source free from carbon emissions and long-lived radioactive waste.
U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm confirmed that scientists achieved a reaction that created more energy than was used — known as a net energy gain — at the federally-funded Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.
“Last week at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, scientists at the National Ignition Facility achieved fusion ignition,” Sec. Granholm said. “It’s the first time it’s ever been done. … Simply put, this is one of the most impressive scientific feats of the 21st century.”
Such a development carries broad implications for renewable energy and long-term solutions to replace fossil fuels, though the benefits are still decades away.
“It'd be an enormous game changer,” Constellation Energy CEO Joe Dominguez told Yahoo Finance Live on Monday (video above). “We've been chasing this for a long time. But the developments we saw out of Lawrence Livermore are, I think, the best developments on fusion energy that we've seen since the work at Princeton probably 30 years ago with the TFTR [Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor]. So it's very exciting. It's transformational.”
Nuclear fusion occurs when two atoms under extreme pressure and heat fuse into one atom, releasing a packet of energy. (Photo: National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory)
A nuclear fusion reaction, which is what keeps the sun and other stars burning, occurs when the nuclei of two atoms fuse into one atomic nucleus. When that happens, the excess mass converts into energy. (The reverse process, nuclear fission, powers existing nuclear power plants and bombs.)
Scientists have been working to achieve sustained nuclear fusion since the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory was founded in the 1950s, but replicating the conditions found within the massive cores of stars in labs on earth has proven to be a seemingly intractable problem.
One difficulty has been in running the reaction long enough to ignite a chain of reactions. Another related challenge has been unleashing larger amounts of energy.
Experts say that nuclear fusion releases 4 million times more energy than burning oil or coal. Put another way, a pickup truck filled with nuclear fusion fuel has the equivalent energy of 2 million metric tons of coal or 10 million barrels of oil. And it produces that energy without the drawbacks of other sources, namely climate change causing carbon emissions and lasting hazardous waste.
The U.S. Department of Energy announced a breakthrough in nuclear fusion on Tuesday that puts the world one step closer to harnessing an abundant energy source free from carbon emissions and long-lived radioactive waste.
U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm confirmed that scientists achieved a reaction that created more energy than was used — known as a net energy gain — at the federally-funded Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.
“Last week at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, scientists at the National Ignition Facility achieved fusion ignition,” Sec. Granholm said. “It’s the first time it’s ever been done. … Simply put, this is one of the most impressive scientific feats of the 21st century.”
Such a development carries broad implications for renewable energy and long-term solutions to replace fossil fuels, though the benefits are still decades away.
“It'd be an enormous game changer,” Constellation Energy CEO Joe Dominguez told Yahoo Finance Live on Monday (video above). “We've been chasing this for a long time. But the developments we saw out of Lawrence Livermore are, I think, the best developments on fusion energy that we've seen since the work at Princeton probably 30 years ago with the TFTR [Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor]. So it's very exciting. It's transformational.”
Nuclear fusion occurs when two atoms under extreme pressure and heat fuse into one atom, releasing a packet of energy. (Photo: National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory)
A nuclear fusion reaction, which is what keeps the sun and other stars burning, occurs when the nuclei of two atoms fuse into one atomic nucleus. When that happens, the excess mass converts into energy. (The reverse process, nuclear fission, powers existing nuclear power plants and bombs.)
Scientists have been working to achieve sustained nuclear fusion since the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory was founded in the 1950s, but replicating the conditions found within the massive cores of stars in labs on earth has proven to be a seemingly intractable problem.
One difficulty has been in running the reaction long enough to ignite a chain of reactions. Another related challenge has been unleashing larger amounts of energy.
Experts say that nuclear fusion releases 4 million times more energy than burning oil or coal. Put another way, a pickup truck filled with nuclear fusion fuel has the equivalent energy of 2 million metric tons of coal or 10 million barrels of oil. And it produces that energy without the drawbacks of other sources, namely climate change causing carbon emissions and lasting hazardous waste.
Technicians use a service system lift to access the target chamber interior for inspection and maintenance at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory federal research facility in Livermore, California, United States in 2008. Philip Saltonstall/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory/Handout via REUTERS
Recent years have shown more promising results, partly due to improved technology and a growing appetite for zero-carbon energy. Donut-shaped reactors using large magnets have been able to extend the time of the reaction. Earlier this year, one such reactor in China set a record for the longest sustained nuclear fusion reaction at 17 minutes. Other tests have claimed to reach a breakeven point, meaning the energy output equaled the energy put into the test.
The development at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory has seemingly gone further. The National Ignition Facility (NIF) uses a different method of causing fusion by directing powerful lasers at a capsule of hydrogen atoms to generate the pressure and heat necessary.
According to The Financial Times, which first reported the news Sunday, preliminary results show ignition took place, producing 2.5 megajoules of energy, or 120% of the energy that was consumed by the lasers.
That marks a long-awaited advancement in what has been considered a moonshot technology for decades. However, there's still a long runway ahead to move from small reactions in laboratory settings to commercial nuclear reactors.
Specifically, nuclear fusion won't help the world reach its 2030 net-zero targets. It may start to come into play by 2050.
“I still think we're decades away,” Dominguez said. “But this development, where we're now getting more energy out of the reaction than we're putting in to create the reaction, is a gigantic milestone.”
Grace O'Donnell is an editor for Yahoo Finance.
How nuclear fusion works, and why it's a big deal for green energy that scientists made a 'breakthrough'
Paola Rosa-Aquino
Tue, December 13, 2022
Engineers work at the National Ignition Facility in California's Lawrence Livermore Laboratory.David Butow / Contributor
US Department of Energy scientists produced a nuclear fusion reaction with a net energy gain.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's National Ignition Facility achieved the milestone on December 5.
Fusion energy advocates say it's a step forward in clean, cheap, and almost limitless electricity.
Scientists have made a "breakthrough" in their quest to harness nuclear fusion.
The US Department of Energy officially announced the milestone in fusion energy research on Tuesday.
For the first time, researchers created a nuclear fusion reaction that produced more energy than they put into it.
The experiment, conducted on December 5 at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, generated 3.15 megajoules of energy, more than the 2.05 megajoules put into creating it.
"Scientifically, this is the first time that they showed that this is possible," Gianluca Sarri, a physicist at Queen's University Belfast, told New Scientist. "From theory, they knew that it should happen, but it was never seen in real life experimentally."
What is fusion energy and why is it a big deal?
This illustration shows how lasers heat a target to the necessary conditions for nuclear fusion to occur
.Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Nuclear fusion works by forcing together two atoms — most often hydrogen — to make a heavier one — like helium.
This explosive process releases massive amounts of energy, the Department of Energy explains. Fusion is the opposite of fission, the reaction that powers nuclear reactors used commercially today.
Fusion occurs naturally in the heart of the sun and the stars, providing these cosmic objects with fuel.
Since the 1950s, scientists have been trying to replicate it on Earth in order to tap into what nuclear energy advocates suggest is clean, cheap, and almost limitless electricity.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, fusion generates four times more energy per kilogram than the fission used to power nuclear plants, and nearly 4 million times more energy than burning oil or coal.
What's more, unlike fossil fuels, fusion doesn't release carbon dioxide — the greenhouse gas that's the main driver of climate change — into the atmosphere. And unlike nuclear fission, fusion doesn't create long-lived radioactive waste, according to the Department of Energy.
Nuclear fusion works by forcing together two atoms — most often hydrogen — to make a heavier one — like helium.
This explosive process releases massive amounts of energy, the Department of Energy explains. Fusion is the opposite of fission, the reaction that powers nuclear reactors used commercially today.
Fusion occurs naturally in the heart of the sun and the stars, providing these cosmic objects with fuel.
Since the 1950s, scientists have been trying to replicate it on Earth in order to tap into what nuclear energy advocates suggest is clean, cheap, and almost limitless electricity.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, fusion generates four times more energy per kilogram than the fission used to power nuclear plants, and nearly 4 million times more energy than burning oil or coal.
What's more, unlike fossil fuels, fusion doesn't release carbon dioxide — the greenhouse gas that's the main driver of climate change — into the atmosphere. And unlike nuclear fission, fusion doesn't create long-lived radioactive waste, according to the Department of Energy.
A view of Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant, in Leningrad, Russia on September 14, 2022.
Sezgin Pancar/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
But so far, nuclear fusion hasn't solved our energy problems on a grand scale.
What Tuesday's 'breakthrough' announcement means for the future
Tuesday's announcement is a huge step forward in nuclear fusion energy, but applying the technology at commercial scale is likely still years away.
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, a theoretical physicist, pointed out that the process the Department of Energy uses requires tritium, a rare and radioactive isotope of hydrogen.
"It may yet yield important information that is ultimately transformative. We don't know yet," Prescod-Weinstein tweeted on Monday. "Being able to do this once a day with a laser does not at all mean that this mechanism will scale!"
Investors, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, have poured billions into clean energy startups trying to make fusion commercially viable, and Tuesday's announcement is likely to continue that trend.
But so far, nuclear fusion hasn't solved our energy problems on a grand scale.
What Tuesday's 'breakthrough' announcement means for the future
Tuesday's announcement is a huge step forward in nuclear fusion energy, but applying the technology at commercial scale is likely still years away.
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, a theoretical physicist, pointed out that the process the Department of Energy uses requires tritium, a rare and radioactive isotope of hydrogen.
"It may yet yield important information that is ultimately transformative. We don't know yet," Prescod-Weinstein tweeted on Monday. "Being able to do this once a day with a laser does not at all mean that this mechanism will scale!"
Investors, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, have poured billions into clean energy startups trying to make fusion commercially viable, and Tuesday's announcement is likely to continue that trend.
US scientists achieve ‘holy grail’ net gain nuclear fusion reaction: report
Josh Marcus
Sun, December 11, 2022
US scientists have reportedly carried out the first nuclear fusion experiment to achieve a net energy gain, a major breakthrough in a field that has been pursuing such a result since the 1950s, and a potential milestone in the search for a climate-friendly, renewable energy source to replace fossil fuels.
The experiment took place in recent weeks at the government-funded Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, where researchers used a process known as inertial confinement fusion, the Financial Times reports, citing three people with knowledge of the experiment’s preliminary results.
The test involved bombarding a pellet of hydrogen plasma with the world’s largest laser to trigger a nuclear fusion reaction, the same process which takes place in the sun.
Researchers were able to produce 2.5 megajoules of energy, 120 per cent of the 2.1 megajoules used to power the experiment.
The laboratory confirmed to the FT it had recently conducted a “successful” experiment at the National Ignition Facility, but declined to comment further, citing the preliminary nature of the data.
“Initial diagnostic data suggests another successful experiment at the National Ignition Facility. However, the exact yield is still being determined and we can’t confirm that it is over the threshold at this time,” it said. “That analysis is in process, so publishing the information . . . before that process is complete would be inaccurate.”
The scientific community is abuzz that a net gain fusion reaction has taken place, noting that US energy secretary Jennifer Granholm and US under-secretary for nuclear security Jill Hruby are set to make an announcement from the national laboratory on Tuesday.
Many commentators celebrated the reported fusion breakthrough.
“Scientists have struggled to show that fusion can release more energy out than is put in since the 1950s, and the researchers at Lawrence Livermore seem to have finally and absolutely smashed this decades-old goal,” Arthur Turrell, deputy director of the UK Office for National Statistics, wrote on Twitter on Sunday. “This experimental result will electrify efforts to eventually power the planet with nuclear fusion—at a time when we’ve never needed a plentiful source of carbon-free energy more!”
Oliver Cameron, an executive at self-driving car company Cruise, predicted that with the news out of Livermore, the world could be in for a futuristic era of widespread nuclear fusion energy and broadly capable artificial general intelligence (AGI).
“It is becoming increasingly likely that we end this decade with both AGI and viable nuclear fusion,” he wrote on Twitter on Sunday.
In April, the White House announced a suite of initiatives meant to support the development of the fusion industry.
“Fusion is one of a much larger suite of clean energy gamechangers that [are] commensurate with the scale that the climate challenge requires,” Alondra Nelson, head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said at the time in a statement. “Now is the time for courageous innovation to accelerate fusion energy.”
The Biden administration also helped secure $370bn in subsidies for low-carbon energy development as part of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
Researchers and environmentalists remain divided over the green potential of nuclear fusion.
Proponents argue that fusion is much safer than nuclear fission, the process that powers all existing nuclear energy plants. They say that if commercial reactors were able to regularly achieve net energy gain, and were powered by renewable energy, fusion could be the energy source that finally weans the world off its dependence of fossil fuels.
“For my generation, it was fear of weapons that influenced people’s view of nuclear. In this generation, it’s climate change,” Todd Allen, a professor of nuclear engineering at the University of Michigan and director of the school’s Fastest Path to Zero climate centre, told The Independent earlier this year. “I don’t know in the end if these are the technologies that catch fire or not. It’s just interesting to me because they’re the first demos of new ideas in half a century. I think there is a lot of interest and potential.”
Others, however, argue nuclear fusion has a long history of overpromising and under-delivering, despite massive capital expenditures, a sluggish pace of development the world can’t afford given the dwindling time available to avert the worst of the climate crisis.
“We’ve never been in principle against any technology, but it is very clear, every time you start calculating, that the moment you introduce nuclear, the costs are going up and the speed of change is going down,” Jan Haverkamp, an energy expert at Greenpeace, told The Independent in January. “That’s exactly what we can’t afford now as climate change is becoming ever more real. If you start talking about nuclear at this moment, either you’re following a fad or you’re trying to divert the attention from what really needs to be done.”
Still, despite this debate, billions of dollars are flowing into private nuclear startups, like the Bill Gates-backed TerraPower, as well as government efforts like ITER, a 23,000-tonne, $22bn, 35-nation nuclear experiment under construction in France.
Josh Marcus
Sun, December 11, 2022
US scientists have reportedly carried out the first nuclear fusion experiment to achieve a net energy gain, a major breakthrough in a field that has been pursuing such a result since the 1950s, and a potential milestone in the search for a climate-friendly, renewable energy source to replace fossil fuels.
The experiment took place in recent weeks at the government-funded Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, where researchers used a process known as inertial confinement fusion, the Financial Times reports, citing three people with knowledge of the experiment’s preliminary results.
The test involved bombarding a pellet of hydrogen plasma with the world’s largest laser to trigger a nuclear fusion reaction, the same process which takes place in the sun.
Researchers were able to produce 2.5 megajoules of energy, 120 per cent of the 2.1 megajoules used to power the experiment.
The laboratory confirmed to the FT it had recently conducted a “successful” experiment at the National Ignition Facility, but declined to comment further, citing the preliminary nature of the data.
“Initial diagnostic data suggests another successful experiment at the National Ignition Facility. However, the exact yield is still being determined and we can’t confirm that it is over the threshold at this time,” it said. “That analysis is in process, so publishing the information . . . before that process is complete would be inaccurate.”
The scientific community is abuzz that a net gain fusion reaction has taken place, noting that US energy secretary Jennifer Granholm and US under-secretary for nuclear security Jill Hruby are set to make an announcement from the national laboratory on Tuesday.
Many commentators celebrated the reported fusion breakthrough.
“Scientists have struggled to show that fusion can release more energy out than is put in since the 1950s, and the researchers at Lawrence Livermore seem to have finally and absolutely smashed this decades-old goal,” Arthur Turrell, deputy director of the UK Office for National Statistics, wrote on Twitter on Sunday. “This experimental result will electrify efforts to eventually power the planet with nuclear fusion—at a time when we’ve never needed a plentiful source of carbon-free energy more!”
Oliver Cameron, an executive at self-driving car company Cruise, predicted that with the news out of Livermore, the world could be in for a futuristic era of widespread nuclear fusion energy and broadly capable artificial general intelligence (AGI).
“It is becoming increasingly likely that we end this decade with both AGI and viable nuclear fusion,” he wrote on Twitter on Sunday.
In April, the White House announced a suite of initiatives meant to support the development of the fusion industry.
“Fusion is one of a much larger suite of clean energy gamechangers that [are] commensurate with the scale that the climate challenge requires,” Alondra Nelson, head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said at the time in a statement. “Now is the time for courageous innovation to accelerate fusion energy.”
The Biden administration also helped secure $370bn in subsidies for low-carbon energy development as part of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
Researchers and environmentalists remain divided over the green potential of nuclear fusion.
Proponents argue that fusion is much safer than nuclear fission, the process that powers all existing nuclear energy plants. They say that if commercial reactors were able to regularly achieve net energy gain, and were powered by renewable energy, fusion could be the energy source that finally weans the world off its dependence of fossil fuels.
“For my generation, it was fear of weapons that influenced people’s view of nuclear. In this generation, it’s climate change,” Todd Allen, a professor of nuclear engineering at the University of Michigan and director of the school’s Fastest Path to Zero climate centre, told The Independent earlier this year. “I don’t know in the end if these are the technologies that catch fire or not. It’s just interesting to me because they’re the first demos of new ideas in half a century. I think there is a lot of interest and potential.”
Others, however, argue nuclear fusion has a long history of overpromising and under-delivering, despite massive capital expenditures, a sluggish pace of development the world can’t afford given the dwindling time available to avert the worst of the climate crisis.
“We’ve never been in principle against any technology, but it is very clear, every time you start calculating, that the moment you introduce nuclear, the costs are going up and the speed of change is going down,” Jan Haverkamp, an energy expert at Greenpeace, told The Independent in January. “That’s exactly what we can’t afford now as climate change is becoming ever more real. If you start talking about nuclear at this moment, either you’re following a fad or you’re trying to divert the attention from what really needs to be done.”
Still, despite this debate, billions of dollars are flowing into private nuclear startups, like the Bill Gates-backed TerraPower, as well as government efforts like ITER, a 23,000-tonne, $22bn, 35-nation nuclear experiment under construction in France.
US scientists make huge breakthrough in fusion energy
David Millward
Sun, December 11, 2022
Fusion reaction produces net energy gain, says US government lab in scientific milestone - Corbis Historical
A major breakthrough in the search for clean energy has been made by US government scientists at a laboratory in California, it has been reported.
A fusion reaction, carried out at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory produced more energy than was absorbed by the fuel to create it.
It represents a major milestone in the drive to wean the US and other major economies from carbon-producing fossil fuels which scientists regard as the main driver of climate change.
The energy crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine has intensified the need for alternative energy.
Earlier this year the Biden administration passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which included nearly $370bn in new subsidies for low-carbon energy.
On taking office, Mr Biden pledged that his administration would be a global leader in the race to develop green technology.
Pictured is the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory - Corbis Historical
The US energy secretary, Jennifer Granholm and under-secretary for nuclear security Jill Hruby are due to announce the breakthrough on Tuesday.
In August last year, the Livermore laboratory announced the results of a reaction which released 1.3 megajoules of energy, about five times the 250 kilojoules that were absorbed by the capsule.
The reaction is produced by bombarding a minute blob of plasma with light from 192 lasers at the laboratory’s $3.5 billion National Ignition Facility, which was initially created to test nuclear weapons by simulating explosions.
Ms Hruby hailed the results at the time.
“These extraordinary results from NIF (National Ignition Facility) advance the science that NNSA (National Nuclear Safety Administration) depends on to modernise our nuclear weapons and production," she said.
“It also offers potential new avenues of research into alternative energy sources that could aid economic development and help fight climate change."
However, that fell short of the 1.9-megajoule target set by the NIF.
That threshold was breached in recent weeks by scientists at Livermore, the Financial Times reported.
It is understood the latest laser reaction produced 2.5 megajoules of energy. The results of the fusion experiment are still being analysed.
Such was the power produced in the fusion experiment that some of the diagnostic equipment was damaged.
The laboratory has remained cautious, beyond describing the experiment as successful.
“Initial diagnostic data suggests another successful experiment at the National Ignition Facility,” it said.
“However, the exact yield is still being determined and we can’t confirm that it is over the threshold at this time.
“That analysis is in process, so publishing the information . . . before that process is complete would be inaccurate.”
Fusion reactions produce neither carbon nor long-lived, radioactive waste - effectively reaching the holy grail in energy production.
It also enables vast amounts of energy to be produced from very little hydrogen fuel.
The technique of inertial confinement fusion dates back to the 1970s and simply put aims to harness the power found in nuclear weapons to produce energy.
Fusion energy has bipartisan support in Washington.
Earlier this year Democratic congressman Don Beyer, who started the Fusion Energy Caucus, stressed the technology was different from that used to produce power at Fukushima and Chernobyl.
“Fusion is the Holy Grail of climate change and decarbonised future,” he told a White House summit.
“Perhaps even more profoundly, fusion has the potential to lift more citizens of the world out of poverty than any idea since fire.”
David Millward
Sun, December 11, 2022
Fusion reaction produces net energy gain, says US government lab in scientific milestone - Corbis Historical
A major breakthrough in the search for clean energy has been made by US government scientists at a laboratory in California, it has been reported.
A fusion reaction, carried out at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory produced more energy than was absorbed by the fuel to create it.
It represents a major milestone in the drive to wean the US and other major economies from carbon-producing fossil fuels which scientists regard as the main driver of climate change.
The energy crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine has intensified the need for alternative energy.
Earlier this year the Biden administration passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which included nearly $370bn in new subsidies for low-carbon energy.
On taking office, Mr Biden pledged that his administration would be a global leader in the race to develop green technology.
Pictured is the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory - Corbis Historical
The US energy secretary, Jennifer Granholm and under-secretary for nuclear security Jill Hruby are due to announce the breakthrough on Tuesday.
In August last year, the Livermore laboratory announced the results of a reaction which released 1.3 megajoules of energy, about five times the 250 kilojoules that were absorbed by the capsule.
The reaction is produced by bombarding a minute blob of plasma with light from 192 lasers at the laboratory’s $3.5 billion National Ignition Facility, which was initially created to test nuclear weapons by simulating explosions.
Ms Hruby hailed the results at the time.
“These extraordinary results from NIF (National Ignition Facility) advance the science that NNSA (National Nuclear Safety Administration) depends on to modernise our nuclear weapons and production," she said.
“It also offers potential new avenues of research into alternative energy sources that could aid economic development and help fight climate change."
However, that fell short of the 1.9-megajoule target set by the NIF.
That threshold was breached in recent weeks by scientists at Livermore, the Financial Times reported.
It is understood the latest laser reaction produced 2.5 megajoules of energy. The results of the fusion experiment are still being analysed.
Such was the power produced in the fusion experiment that some of the diagnostic equipment was damaged.
The laboratory has remained cautious, beyond describing the experiment as successful.
“Initial diagnostic data suggests another successful experiment at the National Ignition Facility,” it said.
“However, the exact yield is still being determined and we can’t confirm that it is over the threshold at this time.
“That analysis is in process, so publishing the information . . . before that process is complete would be inaccurate.”
Fusion reactions produce neither carbon nor long-lived, radioactive waste - effectively reaching the holy grail in energy production.
It also enables vast amounts of energy to be produced from very little hydrogen fuel.
The technique of inertial confinement fusion dates back to the 1970s and simply put aims to harness the power found in nuclear weapons to produce energy.
Fusion energy has bipartisan support in Washington.
Earlier this year Democratic congressman Don Beyer, who started the Fusion Energy Caucus, stressed the technology was different from that used to produce power at Fukushima and Chernobyl.
“Fusion is the Holy Grail of climate change and decarbonised future,” he told a White House summit.
“Perhaps even more profoundly, fusion has the potential to lift more citizens of the world out of poverty than any idea since fire.”
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