Nuclear fusion breakthrough points way to clean energy future

The U.S. Department of Energy announced Tuesday that it is the first time U.S. scientists have produced “net energy” through nuclear fusion reactions.

The successful December 5 experiment at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is the most reached so far in the decades-long quest to produce cheap, clean, carbon-free energy through nuclear fusion. An important milestone.

“We have taken the first tentative steps towards a clean energy source that has the potential to revolutionize the world. Jill Fulbyadministrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration.

Energy Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm called the achievement “one of the most impressive scientific feats of the 21st century,” adding that it “will go down in the history books.”

In a nuclear fusion reaction, two atoms collide and fuse into a larger atom of a heavier element, releasing excess mass in the form of energy.

Nuclear fusion is the process by which the sun makes energy. The core of the Sun is an ideal high-pressure, high-temperature environment for the fusion of hydrogen atoms into helium. Replicating these conditions on Earth has proven to be much more difficult.

Scientists at Lawrence Livermore in the San Francisco Bay Area trained 192 lasers on a diamond-coated target roughly the size of a peppercorn and fired it at 3 million degrees Celsius (over 5.4 million degrees Fahrenheit). ) and achieved epoch-making results. — mimic star conditions. Fusion has begun.

Said “This all happened before. A hundred times ago.” Marvin Adams, Deputy Director of Defense Programs at the National Nuclear Security Administration. “But last week, for the first time, they designed this experiment to show that the fusion fuel could remain hot enough, dense enough, and round enough to ignite and produce more energy than the laser stored. It was enough time.”

The net energy gain was “about 2 megajoules in and about 3 megajoules out,” Adams said.

Fusion reactions produce three to four times more energy than nuclear fission. Nuclear fission itself is about a million times more powerful than any other energy source on earth.

Nuclear fission, or splitting of atoms, also releases large amounts of energy in a chain reaction. The nuclear fission reaction is Nuclear power plant and destructively nuclear weapons.

Unlike nuclear fission and fusion, Does not emit harmful radioactive byproducts It takes thousands of years to collapse. It is also inherently less dangerous as it does not involve chain reactions.

Furthermore, fusion has long been considered the key to achieving net zero emissions. Electricity and heat production now account for 30% of the world’s he. Global greenhouse gas emissionsA successful technology that harnesses nuclear fusion could, in theory, produce infinitely renewable amounts of clean, low-risk, carbon-free energy.

All these factors have made controllable nuclear fusion one of the most sought after goals in science since the 1950s, attracting billions of dollars in government and private investment.

“We took technology that was born for destruction and opened the door for it to be used for much more.” Lee BernsteinHe was a professor of nuclear engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and former deputy group leader at the Livermore Laboratory National Ignition Facility where the experiments were conducted.

Tuesday’s announcement is a big step towards that ideal, but there’s a long way to go.Practical use is likely to be “several decades” away, he said. Kim BuddilDirector of Livermore.

“This is a one-shot ignition capsule. There is a lot to be done for the commercialization of fusion energy. It must be able to produce a very large number of fusion ignition events per minute.” said Budil. “With concerted efforts and investments, decades of research into the underlying technology will put us in a position to build the power plant.”

In fact, he said, the Livermore achievement was “a bit like the first flight of the Wright brothers.” Paul Bellana plasma physicist at the California Institute of Technology.

Orville and Wilbur Wright in an airplane of their own design certified in 1903 “You can make a heavier-than-air aircraft that takes off, flies, and doesn’t fall,” Bellan said. “It didn’t mean you could fly from Los Angeles to London right away.” Nor did Wright’s plane be the only viable design for an aircraft, he added. We encouraged them to build on their success.

“It’s definitely a defining moment,” Bellan said. “This shows that it’s worth working on, and we’ll end up with something that will pay off in the end.”

It may be decades before fusion is commercially ready, but fission technology has underpinned the United States for decades.Ninety-three Reactor Last year, it produced nearly one-fifth of the nation’s electricity. Among them is the Palo Verde Power Station, just off Interstate 10 in Arizona, which supplies power to Los Angeles and other cities and is the largest power station in the country. President Biden sees nuclear power as essential to achieving his goal of providing 100% climate-friendly electricity by 2035.

Even before Tuesday’s historic announcement, a string of successes at the National Ignition Facility was inspiring a new generation of scientific talent.Since August 2021 when the team reached critical threshold said there was a surge in student interest in fusion to achieve a self-perpetuating response Siegfried GrenzerHe is Professor of Photon Science at Stanford University and Director of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

“This is a really big magnet for young people who want to make a difference in the world right now. Many are driven by climate change and want carbon-free energy sources to be produced,” said Glenzer. rice field. “It’s an exciting time for researchers of all ages.”

Times staff writer Sammy Ross contributed to this report.