Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory claim to have achieved the seemingly impossible: generate more energy with a fusion reaction than they put into it, potentially paving the way for a truly environmentally friendly and safe source of power.
Their experiment, which involved using the “world’s largest and highest energy laser system” at Livermore’s National Ignition Facility to blast light at small capsules of deuterium-tritium fuel, generated 20 percent more energy than the amount required to power the system.
Despite the modest energy output — the system generated enough power to boil around two to three kettles — the researchers are boldly predicting that it could represent a major turning point in the quest to turn fusion energy into a reality.
This new breakthrough opens the door to limitless clean energy.
The time has finally come. Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) are the first in the world to demonstrate net energy production from nuclear fusion.
In other words, theirs was the first ever nuclear fusion experiment to produce more energy than was required to run the experiment in the first place.
Researchers achieved the milestone, also known as fusion ignition, at LLNL’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) during a controlled fusion experiment last Monday, Dec. 5, according to a statement from the US Department of Energy (DOE). They waited for peer-review results before revealing the results to the world.
US officials announced Tuesday that researchers have produced a nuclear fusion reaction resulting in a net energy gain. Follow here for live news updates.
WASHINGTON, Dec 12 (Reuters) — The U.S. Department of Energy on Tuesday will announce that scientists at a national lab have made a breakthrough on fusion, the process that powers the sun and stars that one day could provide a cheap source of electricity, three sources with knowledge of the matter said.
The scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California have achieved a net energy gain for the first time, in a fusion experiment using lasers, one of the people said.
While the results are a milestone in a scientific quest that has been developing since at least the 1930s, the ratio of energy going into the reaction at Livermore to getting energy out of it needs to be about 100 times bigger to create a process producing commercial amounts of electricity, one of the sources said.
Overnight, news broke that the National Ignition Facility, a U.S. government research lab, was the first to achieve net-positive nuclear fusion. When lasers hit the tiny fuel pellet, it created an explosion that released more energy than the lasers delivered.
For decades, fusion power has been just around the corner. Is this the moment we’ve all been waiting for?
Fusion Energy For All Humanity — Prof Dr. Tony Donné Ph.D. — Program Manager (CEO), EUROfusion
Prof. Dr. Tony Donne, Ph.D. is Program Manager (CEO) of the EUROfusion (https://www.euro-fusion.org/) research consortium, a European consortium of 30 national fusion research institutes, in 26 EU countries, plus Switzerland and Ukraine, where he coordinates the work of over 4,000 scientists and engineers.
Dr. Donne trained as a physicist, obtaining his Masters in Experimental Physics at Utrecht University, his Ph.D. degree at the Free University of Amsterdam for work in the field of nuclear physics, and moved into fusion research right afterwards and has devoted a substantial part of his scientific career to the design and use of plasma diagnostics in a large range of fusion devices.
Prior to EUROfusion, Dr. Donne was head of the Fusion Physics Division at the Dutch Institute for Fundamental Energy Research (DIFFER) and responsible for the coordination of the nuclear fusion research in the Netherlands, where he coordinated Dutch fusion research as Director of fusion science and Acting Director.
Dr. Donne has also served as Professor in Diagnostics and Heating of Fusion Plasmas at Eindhoven University of Technology, Director of the Dutch-Russian Centre of Excellence on Fusion Physics and Technology, as well as Program Director of the ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor)-Netherlands consortium, and chair of the Coordination Committee of the International Tokamak Physics Activity under the auspices of the ITER project.
For the first time ever, US scientists at the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California successfully produced a nuclear fusion reaction resulting in a net energy gain, a source familiar with the project confirmed to CNN.
The US Department of Energy is expected to officially announce the breakthrough Tuesday.
The result of the experiment would be a massive step in a decadeslong quest to unleash an infinite source of clean energy that could help end dependence on fossil fuels. Researchers for decades have attempted to recreate nuclear fusion – replicating the fusion that powers the sun.
The US government may have made a major scientific breakthrough in fusion energy, paving the way for creating a limitless supply of energy with zero carbon emissions or radioactive waste, The Financial Times reported, citing people with knowledge of a recent experiment’s results.
The fusion process is a landmark step of progress in the quest to achieve a limitless supply of environmentally-friendly energy.
According to The Financial Times, the US Energy Department will have US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and Undersecretary for Nuclear Security Jill Hruby announce a “major scientific breakthrough” sometime on Tuesday.
Americium-241 emits power for more than 400 years.
The world’s first space battery fueled by Americium-241, a nuclear-based fuel, will be developed in cooperation between the National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) and the U.K. Space Agency.
This project will be carried out in a brand-new laboratory in Cumbria costing £19 million ($23 million) and outfitted with cutting-edge machinery and technology, according to a joint press release by NNL and the Space Agency on Friday.
“For the past 50 years space missions have used Plutonium-238 to stop spacecrafts from freezing, but it is in very limited supply,” said professor Tim Tinsley, account director at NNL.
National Nuclear Laboratory.
This project will be carried out in a brand-new laboratory in Cumbria costing £19 million ($23 million) and outfitted with cutting-edge machinery and technology, according to a joint press release by NNL and the Space Agency on Friday.
