Nuclear fusion: Is there a breakthrough for the US Nationwide Ignition Facility?

The National Ignition Facility is rumored to have made major advances in fusion, but there are still many hurdles to overcome

go through Matthew Sparks

For the first time, a fusion reactor is reportedly producing more energy than it puts in. If confirmed, the experimental results would prove that fusion is a viable way to meet Earth’s growing energy needs by replicating the reactions that have taken place at the center of the sun for billions of years — but with some caveats.

What happened?

Nuclear fusion has long promised to provide abundant, clean energy, but until recently it was a distant dream. Over the past few years, experiments around the world have become increasingly promising, but crucially, all require more energy input than they generate.

now a report in Financial Times Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California have shown that they have overcome this major hurdle.The lab’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) fusion reactor uses lasers to generate heat and pressure to convert deuterium and tritium into a fusion-friendly plasma, and Financial Times In one experiment, the laser delivered 2.1 megajoules of energy, resulting in about 2.5 megajoules of power, an increase of about 20 percent, the report said.

Laboratory sources told Financial Times That data is still being processed, but the energy output of the fusion reaction was greater than expected and damaged some diagnostic equipment.

“Our analysis is still ongoing, so we cannot provide details or confirmation at this time. We look forward to sharing more information on Tuesday when the process is complete,” an LLNL spokesperson told new scientistreferring to an announcement expected by the U.S. Department of Energy on Dec. 13, according to Financial Times and sources who spoke with new scientist.

Gianluca Sarri Queen’s University Belfast said caution was needed until the report was confirmed, but if true it would be a huge milestone. “It’s not a given, it’s not obvious,” he said. “We know now that we can do nuclear fusion here on Earth.”

So is fusion cracked?

While an energy output higher than that of the lasers powering the NIF reactor would be very positive, there is still work to be done.

In order for a reactor to be generally useful, it must produce more energy than was originally input into the laser. The inefficiency of generating lasers with electricity means that’s not the case at the moment—Sarri estimates that if the lasers output 2.1 megajoules of power, the NIF would have to draw “tens” of megajoules from the grid to make it happen.

Even if the reactor were able to offset the real power needed for the laser, it would just break even. In order for fusion to be a viable alternative to existing energy sources, we must be able to extract large amounts of net energy.

“The important point, though, is that, scientifically, this is the first time they’ve shown that it’s possible,” Sarri said. “Theoretically, they knew this should happen, but had never seen it experimentally in real life. All other aspects were complicated, but nothing stood in the way—it was just a matter of technology.”

what happened next

A researcher told new scientist rumors and Financial Times The report, along with preliminary data, has been circulated in academic circles, and the Ministry of Energy is expected to formally confirm the results on December 13.

There is still a lot of work to do after that. The NIF reactor is a laser-based inertial confinement fusion A research setup that squeezes plasma with lasers.This is a different kind of magnetic method Tokamak Devices are currently the biggest area of ​​fusion research, so it’s unclear whether these machines will be able to achieve fusion.

Overall, it may take decades for a viable commercial reactor to reliably produce much more energy than its input absorbs.

Can nuclear fusion solve climate change?

maybe not. If we could build efficient, reliable fusion reactors, we could easily meet the world’s energy needs without unpleasant waste, since the main byproduct of fusion is helium.

But to do that, we need to perfect the engineering of the reactors and then build them. While the physics of nuclear fusion are well understood, the engineering challenges involved in creating a working reactor are enormous and currently prohibitively expensive.

Even tried-and-tested nuclear fission plants, the type we’ve relied on for decades, It takes about five years to build. Fusion reactors may take longer.for Keep global warming below 1.5°C, the world must immediately reduce carbon emissions by 43% by 2030. While nuclear fusion may play a role in powering the second half of the 21st century, it is unlikely to solve the immediate climate crisis.