Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory managed to produce “more energy from fusion than the laser energy used to drive it.”
The Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm, announced this Tuesday, December 13, a “historical scientific breakthrough” in decades-long search for nuclear fusion, the energy that powers the Sun and starss.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researchers in California first produced more energy in a fusion reaction than was used to ignite it. This is called the net energy gain, as reported by the Department of Energy.
The achievement will pave the way for advances in national defense and the future of clean energy, the officials said. Granholm appeared with Livermore investigators at a news conference in Washington.
“This is a historic achievement for the researchers and staff at the National Ignition Facility, who have dedicated their careers to making fusion ignition a reality, and this milestone will undoubtedly drive even more discoveries,” he said in a statement.
White House science adviser Arati Prabhakar, who appeared with Granholm, called fusion ignition a “tremendous example of what perseverance can achieve” and of “unimaginable engineering marvel.”
For her part, the Undersecretary of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Jill Hruby stated in the appearance before the media that last December 5, when scientists achieved nuclear fusion with net energy gain, was “an important day for science”.
“Achieving ignition in a controlled fusion experiment is an achievement that follows 60 years of global research development, engineering and experimentation,” Hruby said.
On December 5, a team at LLNL’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) conducted the first controlled fusion experiment in history to reach this milestone, also known as scientific #energy breakeven, meaning it produced more energy from #fusion than the laser energy used to drive it. pic.twitter.com/Z0MA5YrphP
— Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (@Livermore_Lab) December 13, 2022
The historical advance in nuclear fusion was thanks to 192 lasers once morest a target
To achieve this feat, he explained, scientists directed 192 lasers at a target the size of a popcorn. Specifically, a capsule with deuteron and triton, at regarding 3 million degrees Celsius. In this way, “they briefly simulated the conditions of a star and achieved ignition”Hruby noted.
However, the director of the California laboratory, Kim Budil, qualified that there are still “significant obstacles. Not only scientific, but technological” when it comes to having commercial purposes.
“This has only been one capsule that has burned once and to have commercial fusion power it takes many capsules to achieve several fusion ignition events per minute.”Budil detailed.
In this sense, he estimated that it will still take “a few decades” with a concerted effort of investment and efforts to be able to build a power plant that runs on nuclear fusion.
For his part, NNSA Deputy Administrator for Defense Programs, Marvin Adams, recalled that fusion is an “essential process in modern nuclear weapons and that it has the potential to create abundant clean energy.”
Likewise assured that this finding will allow laboratory experiments that will help NNSA weapons deterrence programs, “no explosive nuclear tests”.
In addition, he stressed, “it supports the credibility of our deterrence by demonstrating to the world leadership in experience and relevant weapons technology.”