US lab hits fusion milestone raising hopes for clean power
Scientists have known for about a century that fusion powers the sun and have pursued developing fusion on Earth for decades
US scientists on Tuesday revealed a breakthrough on fusion energy that could one day help curb climate change if companies can scale up the technology to a commercial level in the coming decades.
Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Lab in California on 5 Dec for the first time briefly achieved a net energy gain in a fusion experiment using lasers, the US Energy Department said. The scientists focused a laser on a target of fuel to fuse two light atoms into a denser one, releasing the energy.
Kimberly Budil, the director of Lawrence Livermore, told reporters at an Energy Department event that science and technology hurdles mean commercialization is probably not five or six decades away, but sooner. "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," Budil said.
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Scientists have known for about a century that fusion powers the sun and have pursued developing fusion on Earth for decades.
The experiment briefly achieved what's known as fusion ignition by generating 3.15 megajoules of energy output after the laser delivered 2.05 megajoules to the target, the Energy Department said.
Nuclear scientists outside the lab said the achievement will be a major stepping stone, but there is much more science to be done before fusion becomes commercially viable.
Tony Roulstone, a nuclear energy expert at the University of Cambridge, estimated that the energy output of the experiment was only 0.5% of the energy that was needed to fire the lasers in the first place.
The electricity industry cautiously welcomed the step, though emphasised that in order to carry out the energy transition, fusion should not slow down efforts on building out other alternatives like solar and wind power, battery storage and nuclear fission.
