(CNN) — US Department of Energy officials announced a historic breakthrough in nuclear fusion on Tuesday: For the first time, US scientists produced more energy from fusion than the laser energy used to power the experiment.
Nuclear fusion is a man-made process that replicates the same energy that powers the sun. The so-called “net energy gain,” on the other hand, is a major milestone in a decades-long attempt to obtain unlimited clean energy from nuclear fusion, the reaction that occurs when two or more atoms fuse together.
The experiment input 2.05 megajoules of energy and resulted in 3.15 MJ of fusion energy output, generating more than 50% more energy than was put in. It is the first time that an experiment has generated a significant energy gain.
“This monumental scientific breakthrough is a milestone for the future of clean energy,” said Democratic Senator Alex Padilla of California.
The target chamber at the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California is where the magic happens: temperatures of 100 million degrees and pressures extreme enough to compress the target to densities of up to 100 times the lead density. (Damien Jemison/LLNL)
Scientists around the world have been studying nuclear fusion for decades, hoping to recreate it with a new source that provides unlimited, carbon-free energy, without the nuclear waste created by today’s nuclear reactors. Fusion projects mainly use the elements deuterium and tritium, both isotopes of hydrogen.
The breakthrough was made by a team of scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility in California on December 5. It is a facility the size of a sports stadium that is equipped with 192 lasers.
US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm called the breakthrough a “historic achievement” in a statement.
In the text, Granholm said that scientists at Livermore and other national laboratories are doing work that will help the US “solve humanity’s most complex and pressing problems, such as providing clean energy to combat climate change and maintaining the nuclear deterrence without nuclear testing”.
Livermore Principal Dr. Kim Budil called scientists’ attempts to perform fusion ignition in the lab “one of the most significant scientific challenges ever tackled by mankind” and applauded the work of her lab’s scientists. .
“Achieving it is a triumph of science, engineering and, above all, of people,” Budil said in a statement. “Crossing this threshold is the vision that has driven 60 years of dedicated research. These are the problems for which the national laboratories of the United States were created.”
He also added that “there are still ‘significant hurdles’ to overcome with nuclear fusion technology before commercialization is possible.
Arati Prabhakar during a press conference on Tuesday regarding the scientific advance in nuclear fusion. (US Department of Energy)
Arati Prabhakar, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and science adviser to President Joe Biden, said for her part that the nuclear fusion breakthrough announced Tuesday is a “scientific milestone” and also a “marvel of engineering”.
Prabhakar spoke regarding how, as a 19-year-old student, he spent three months at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California working on their nuclear fusion project. “They never lost sight of this goal,” he added.
Jill Hruby, deputy secretary of the National Nuclear Security and Nuclear Safety Administration (NNSA), said that “in the future,” this work will see more “advances” and “setbacks.”
Hruby added that his work focuses on “advancing national security” while “pushing toward … a clean energy future.”
She said Tuesday’s “unprecedented” announcement confirms what she and others have been saying for decades, which is that there is no “more dedicated or talented group of scientists” at work today.
This news is in development.
