2023-08-14 06:00:04
American scientists have just demonstrated for the second time that a nuclear fusion reaction can produce more energy than it consumes. Even if this breakthrough is minimal, it brings us closer to a new source of energy (In common sense, energy designates everything that allows us to do work, make energy…) that is both clean and potentially inexhaustible.
View of the target chamber at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California.
Crédit: Tony Avelar/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Using the world’s most powerful laser, physicists briefly turned a pellet of hydrogen isotopes into plasma, achieving a net energy gain greater than their first attempt the previous year. “Since the first demonstration (In mathematics, a demonstration makes it possible to establish a proposition from…) of fusion ignition at the NIF (National Ignition Facility) in December 2022, we continue our experiments in this new scientific field ( A scientist is a person who is dedicated to the study of a science or sciences and who…exciting. In an experiment conducted on July 30, we reiterated this ignition at NIF,” the researchers said. .
Nuclear fusion, which powers stars like our Sun, has been studied since the 1940s. In stars, hydrogen atoms fuse together to form helium (Helium is a virtually inert noble gas or rare gas. With atomic number 2, it…) at extreme temperatures and pressures, transforming matter (Matter is the substance that makes up any body having a tangible reality. Its…) into light (Light is the set of electromagnetic waves visible to the eye…) and heat (In everyday language, the words heat and temperature often have an equivalent meaning:…) without producing harmful by-products.
Replicating these conditions on Earth is no small feat. In addition to hellish temperatures and colossal pressures, huge amounts of energy are needed to turn the fuel into plasma. So far, only the NIF, located in California, has been successful, although the experiment lasted only a fraction of a second (Second is the feminine of the adjective second, which comes immediately following the first or which …).
Two types of reactors dominate fusion experiments: magnetic confinement reactors and inertial confinement reactors, such as the one at NIF. In the NIF experiment, photons were sent by lasers to both ends of a cylinder (A cylinder is a surface in space defined by a straight line (d), called…) to strike a capsule in gold containing tritium (Tritium (T or 3H) is – like deuterium – one of the isotopes of hydrogen. It…) and deuterium (Deuterium (symbol 2H or D) is a natural isotope of hydrogen. Its atomic nucleus…), generating X-rays which in turn heated the fuel pellet. This triggered a reaction producing more energy than that provided by the lasers.
However, despite these advances, producing more energy than the entire reactor consumes might take decades. Nevertheless, this research offers proof that the energy of the stars might one day fuel our life on Earth.
1691995979
#conclusive #test #nuclear #fusion #energy #gain
