California scientists make history by using world’s largest laser to replicate reaction that powers the sun

Arizona scientists may have discovered an unlimited source of clean energy by recreating the nuclear fusion process that powers the sun.

Researchers at the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Lab in California were able to ignite a fusion reaction that briefly sustained — a major feat because fusion requires such high temperatures and pressures that it is easily quenched.

The experiment was performed in August, but first reported earlier this month. Similar tests have been carried out before, but it was the first that generated more energy than was used to create the experiment, meaning scientists can now harness nuclear fusion as a power source.

The August test actually generated more energy than scientists predicted and damaged some equipment.

But it could now represent a revolutionary moment in humanity’s shift from fossil fuels like oil and coal to completely clean energy sources that don’t pollute the air, or scar landscapes with mines or pipelines.

The ultimate goal, years from now, is to generate energy like the sun generates heat, pushing hydrogen atoms so close together that they combine into helium, which releases torrents of ‘energy.

A single cup of this stuff could power an average-sized home for hundreds of years, carbon-free.

Using the world’s largest laser, consisting of 192 beams and temperatures more than three times hotter than the center of the sun, researchers have for the first time coaxed fusion fuel to heat beyond the heat they zapped from him, realizing a net energy gain.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility shown above. The system uses 192 laser beams converging at the center of this giant sphere to implode a tiny pellet of hydrogen.

All of the energy from the 192 NIF beams is directed into a golden cylinder called the hohlraum, which is about the size of a penny. A tiny capsule inside the hohlraum contains atoms of deuterium (hydrogen with one neutron) and tritium (hydrogen with two neutrons) which fuel the ignition process

The phenomenon called burning plasma marks a step towards autonomous fusion energy. Scientists now appear to be able to “burn” the fuel on its own and produce more energy than is needed to trigger the initial reaction.

Most scientists believe that fusion power plants are still decades away, but the technology’s potential is hard to ignore.

Although such a fusion has been reproduced before, this is the first time that the reaction ended up producing more energy which was used to start the experiment.

Fusion reactions do not emit carbon and do not produce long-lived radioactive waste. Nuclear fusion squeezes together two types of hydrogen present in water molecules. When they fuse, “a small amount (milligrams) of fuel produces huge amounts of energy and it’s also very ‘clean’ in that it doesn’t produce any radioactive waste,” said Carolyn Kuranz, a physicist. experimental plasmas that was not part of the research. .

Experiments create searing plasmas that only last a billionth of a second, but it’s enough to be considered a success

This illustration depicts a target pellet inside a hohlraum capsule with laser beams entering through openings at either end. The beams compress and heat the target to the conditions necessary for nuclear fusion to occur

“It’s basically clean, limitless energy that can be deployed anywhere,” she said.

The technology is still far from producing useful energy.

It’s already taken several years in a lab straight out of Star Trek. In fact, one of the movies used the lab as a background visual for the Enterprise’s engine room – and many failed attempts to get there.

One tweak that helped: Researchers enlarged the fuel capsule by about 10% and it’s now the size of a ball bearing.

This capsule fits in a tiny golden metal box on which the researchers aim 192 lasers.

They heat it to about 100 million degrees, creating about 50% more pressure inside the capsule than is inside the center of the sun.

The experiments create searing plasmas that only last a billionth of a second, but it’s enough to be considered a success.

The fusion reaction in this case produced about 2.5 megajoules of energy, or about 120% of the 2.1 megajoules of energy from the lasers.

By comparison, an average home consumes about 108 megajoules per day.

The US Department of Energy says it will announce a “major science breakthrough” at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory this Tuesday.

Michael Campbell, director of LLE at the University of Rochester in New York

“Initial diagnostic data suggests another successful experiment at the National Ignition Facility,” the lab said.

“However, the exact yield is still being determined and we cannot confirm that it exceeds the threshold at this time.” This analysis is ongoing, so releasing the information…before this process is complete would be inaccurate.

“If confirmed, we are witnessing a historic moment,” plasma physicist Dr Arthur Turrell told the Financial Times.

“Scientists have struggled to show that fusion can release more energy than it has since the 1950s, and the Lawrence Livermore researchers appear to have finally and absolutely shattered that decades-old goal. ”

“It couldn’t be deeper for fusion power,” added Nicholas Hawker, chief executive of Oxford-based start-up First Light Fusion, describing the potential breakthrough as “game-changing”.

“This gives the United States laboratory capability to study burning plasmas and high-energy physics relevant to [nuclear weapons] stewardship,” Michael Campbell, director of LLE at the University of Rochester in New York, told Physics Today.

“It’s a huge scientific achievement.”

The $3.5 billion National Ignition Facility was originally built for the purpose of testing nuclear weapons by simulating explosions, but its focus has now shifted to advancing energy research of merger.

Researchers around the world have been working on this technology for decades, trying different approaches.

Thirty-five countries are collaborating on a project in the south of France called the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor which uses huge magnets to control superheated plasma. It should start working in 2026.

Previous experiments in the US and UK have successfully fused atoms, but failed to heat up.

The Biden administration, through the Cut Inflation Act, is investing nearly $370 billion in new low-carbon energy subsidies, with the plan to cut emissions and focus on clean technologies for the next generation.