“One of the most impressive scientific feats of the 21st century,” is how the US Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm, described the advances in nuclear fusion achieved by federal scientists. This Tuesday the announcement was made: the researchers managed to produce more energy than was used to turn it on. A first step to achieve clean, cheap and perhaps inexhaustible energy.
Decades of research and, finally, the United States announced the discovery that brings us closest to the Sun. As in the stars, American researchers have managed to produce more energy than was used to turn it on.
A milestone celebrated by the US Government, which will allow greater efficiency in its Defense strategies, but also the possibility of obtaining clean, cheap energy that could become inexhaustible.
However, this discovery still lacks the development of a technology that enthusiasts predict will take a few decades, compared to the 50 or 60 years previously believed.
Here are 5 questions and answers to understand the finding in depth:
What is the discovery?
On December 5, US scientists achieved a nuclear reaction in which more energy was produced than was used to ignite it. It is the same process that powers the sun and is known as a net gain of energy.
The experiment briefly achieved what is known as fusion ignition by generating 3.15 megajoules of energy output after the laser delivered 2.05 megajoules to the target, the Department of Energy said. These are the conditions equivalent to a star at three million degrees Celsius.
“Ignition allows us for the first time to replicate certain conditions found only in stars and the sun,” Jennifer Granholm, the US Secretary of Energy, said at a news conference in Washington.
This fusion occurs at temperatures and pressures so high that they are incredibly difficult to control. Lasers press hydrogen atoms together with such force that they combine into helium, causing enormous amounts of energy and heat to be released. They imitate the explosions of nuclear weapons, although they are produced without generating radioactive waste or leaving a carbon footprint.
The process is carried out in a miniature spherical capsule, the size of a peppercorn, against which an enormous amount of heat is concentrated by 192 lasers. The result is a superheated plasma environment in which a reaction generates approximately 1.5 times more energy than is contained in the light used to produce it.
Who is behind this investigation?
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a federal facility in California. Inside is the National Ignition Installation; It was inaugurated in 2009 and contains the largest laser in the world.
The announcement was made by the Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm, who was accompanied by the White House scientific adviser, Arati Prabhakar, Jill Hruby, Deputy Secretary for Nuclear Security of the United States, and the director of the laboratory, Kim Budil, among others.
An announcement in style, which also included the words of the President of the United States, Joe Biden, who described the advance as a good example of the need to continue investing in research and development. “Look at what is happening from the Department of Energy on the nuclear front. There is very good news on the horizon,” he said at the White House.
Can you fight the climate crisis?
The nuclear fusion process is the opposite of fission, which is the one used in nuclear power plants. In fusion, atoms come together; in fission, they separate. The main difference is that fission produces a large amount of debris and radiation. For its part, fusion achieves a greater amount of energy and very little radioactive waste that is eliminated in a short time.
In this process, in addition, carbon is not released, so there is no footprint in the climate crisis.
That is why scientists have tried to obtain energy the same as that generated in the Sun, in order to have an endless, non-polluting source that does not generate hazardous waste, and that also requires fewer resources than other renewables such as wind and solar.
But it is not only being investigated with lasers, but also with powerful magnets that confine the fusion fuel in the form of plasma, this is a fourth state of matter that contains charged particles. There are also other scientists trying to develop a combined technology between magnets and lasers.
When will you be able to get revenue?
Today’s news is seen as the first step. Nuclear scientists believe that there is still a lot of research to be done before it becomes commercially viable. For this to be possible, a power plant would have to produce enough to power the lasers and achieve ignition continuously.
For Professor Dennys Whyte, director of the Plasma Science and Fusion Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a leader in fusion research, it has been the “starting gun”: “We should push for fusion power systems to be available to address the climate change and energy security.
For his part, Riccardo Betti, a professor at the University of Rochester and an expert in laser fusion, said there is still a long way to go. And he gave an example: “You still don’t have the engine and you still don’t have the tires. You can’t say you have a car.”
For its part, the electricity industry was prudent with the achievement and emphasized that, to carry out the energy transition, fusion must not slow down efforts to build other alternatives such as solar and wind energy, battery storage and nuclear fission. .
“To produce commercial power you have to be able to produce many, many fusion ion ignition events per minute,” said lab director Kim Budil. However, he also believes that this discovery has bought time from the five or six decades that were expected before achieving clean energy with this scientific process: “With concerted effort and investment, a few decades of research on the underlying technologies could put us in a position to build a power plant.”
Debra Callahan, who worked at Lawrence Livermore until the end of this year and is now a senior scientist at Focused Energy, said the results from the lab will help companies figure out how to make lasers more efficient. “Everyone is excited about what has been accomplished and what is in the future.”
Why is it historical?
Scientists have known for about a century that fusion powers the sun, and have pursued the development of fusion on Earth for decades.
To achieve this, billions of dollars and decades of work have been invested in fusion research that has produced exhilarating results, by fractions of a second.
Private companies have raised about $5 billion from investors ranging from individuals to oil companies to public funding, according to the Fusion Industry Association.
The United States is pursuing this discovery for zero-carbon energy that can combat climate change. An energy that needs fewer resources than renewable. And an energy that will make it possible to maintain nuclear weapons without the need for tests.
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm called fusion ignition “one of the most impressive scientific feats of the 21st century,” adding that the breakthrough “will go down in the history books.”
White House science adviser Arati Prabhakar called the fusion ignition achieved on December 5 “a tremendous example of what perseverance can truly achieve” and “an engineering marvel beyond belief.”
France 24 with AP and Reuters
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