And to realize commercial fusion energy, you have to do many things. While this scientific breakthrough that is being celebrated at the highest levels of government, it will be many years before fusion power plants are likely to provide clean abundant energy. In addition to the national security work, "we have taken the first tentative steps towards a clean energy source that could revolutionize the world," Hruby said. The main mission of the National Lab is studying nuclear power for use in national defense, and this nuclear fusion research is part of an effort established in 1996 by then President Clinton to maintain confidence in the safety of nuclear weapons stockpiles without full-scale nuclear testing.īut this discovery has massive implications for clean energy, too. "During experiments, 192 high energy lasers converge on a target about the size of a peppercorn heating a capsule of deuterium and tritium to over 3 million degrees Celsius and briefly simulating the conditions of a star," Hruby said.
"A gain of 1.5," Adams said.įor the experiment, super high powered lasers are all directed at a very tiny fuel target at the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. 5, about two megajoules (a unit of energy) went into the reaction and about three megajoules came out, said Marvin Adams, Deputy Administrator for Defense Programs at the National Nuclear Security Administration. This will lead fusion to be a safe and sustainable energy source in the near future." "For the first time on Earth, scientists have confirmed a fusion energy experiment released more power than it takes to initiate, proving the physical basis for fusion energy. Earlier results were records, but not yet producing more energy out than was put in," Andrew Holland, the CEO of the industry's trade group, the Fusion Industry Association, told CNBC. Since the experiment, the team has been analyzing data to be able to make this official announcement. Reaching ignition means the fusion experiment produced more energy from fusion than the laser energy that used to drive the reaction. "Reaching ignition in a controlled fusion experiment is an achievement that has come after more than 60 years of global research, development, engineering and experimentation."
"Monday, Decemwas an important day in science," Jill Hruby, the National Nuclear Security Administration Administrator, said at a press conference announcing the news on Tuesday in Washington D.C.
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