On Tuesday, US scientists announced a historic breakthrough in nuclear fusion, which could revolutionize energy production on Earth.
The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), which is associated with the US Department of Energy, said on Twitter that the experiment they were working on “produced more fusion energy than laser energy” to bring about the reaction.
in December. 5, 2022, Team at LLNL’s @employee He conducted the first controlled fusion experiment in history to achieve fusion ignition. Also known as the scientific energy equalizer, the experiment produced more energy from the fusion than the lasers used to propel it. pic.twitter.com/t9htICEcuh
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Livmore_Lab) December 13, 2022
The Department of Energy called the discovery a “major scientific breakthrough” that would lead to “advancements in national defense and the future of clean energy.”
It is “one of the most important scientific challenges humanity has ever faced,” said LLNL Library Director Kim Bodell.
Scientists have been working for decades to develop nuclear fusion, which is considered a clean, abundant and safe source of energy that could allow humanity to stop its dependence on fossil fuels, which is causing the global climate crisis.
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm confirmed in a press conference that the discovery is in the “history books”.
Nuclear power plants currently use the splitting of a heavy atomic nucleus to produce energy.
Nuclear fusion, in turn, brings two hydrogen atoms together to form a heavier helium atom, releasing a great deal of energy in the process.
The National Ignition Facility (NIF) has 192 lasers aimed at a thimble-sized cylinder into which light hydrogen atoms to be fused are placed.
Thus the scientists produced about 3.5 megajoules of energy by using 2.05 megajoules through the laser, according to the lab’s statement.
A long way
Fusion has some advantages: It poses no risk of nuclear catastrophe and produces less radioactive waste. And to top it all off, compared to coal or gas plants, they don’t generate greenhouse gases.
However, there is still a long way to go before fusion becomes viable on an industrial and commercial scale.
It’s likely “decades,” Kim Podell, director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, said Tuesday.
The challenges, he explained, are technical, as it is necessary to be able to repeat the experiment many times a minute.
There are other nuclear fusion projects in the world, such as ITER, which are currently being developed in France.
Instead of lasers, ITER uses a technique known as magnetic confinement: hydrogen atoms are heated in a huge reactor, where they are trapped with the help of a magnetic field.
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