The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility achieved the feat using lasers to fuse two atoms
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US scientists have achieved net energy gain in a nuclear fusion reaction for the second time since a historic breakthrough in December last year in the quest to find a near-limitless, safe and clean source of energy
Scientists at the California-based Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory repeated the breakthrough in an experiment in the National Ignition Facility (NIF) on 30 July that produced a higher energy yield than in December, a Lawrence Livermore spokesperson said.
The approach, which gives rise to the heat and light of the sun and other stars, has been hailed as having huge potential as a sustainable, low-carbon energy source.
In December, Lawrence Livermore first achieved a net energy gain in a fusion experiment using lasers.
The US Department of Energy called it “a major scientific breakthrough decades in the making that will pave the way for advancements in national defense and the future of clean power”.
Fusion energy raises the prospect of plentiful clean power: the reactions release no greenhouse gases or radioactive waste byproducts.
Last couple years have been big strides in the Fusion energy sphere for sure. While we’re still far away from grid-scale fusion energy production, observation that had not been realized in the lab before are coming about, including net positive energy reactions, and also a sustained high-temperature fusion environment from a South Korean lab.
The caveat for this experiment (from the December numbers at least), 2.15MW was delivered to the target via laser, but the fuel needed to power that laser was more than the 3MW output from it, and harnessing that power still involves losses. I didn’t see what the numbers were this time but apparently they are better according to the article. These are still great steps towards viable fusion energy.
It’s a good little week for the sciences, isn’t it?
