The press conference revealed that the laser array that powered the nuclear energy breakthrough is based off 40-year-old technology. Why can’t the other long-term benefits come true, too? What does this mean for investors?īut before a fusion future becomes reality, the energy space requires more research and innovation – lots of it. This month, scientists proved fusion is possible. But then again, the prospect of fusion energy was idealistic 50 years ago. If that sounds a bit idealistic, you’re not wrong. On a grand, long-term scale, fusion energy could eliminate humanity’s emissions, allowing for a cleaner, greener, healthier planet – not to mention, elevated living for all of humanity. New technologies could pull CO2 from the atmosphere at scale, mitigating climate change and reducing pollution-induced human casualties.īattery technology could advance, allowing for mass adoption of clean energy production and storage for homes, vehicles and more. Unlimited power would make it possible to advance all kinds of technologies faster, cheaper and cleaner, from climate change solutions to better laptops.įusion energy could relieve energy blackouts, power water treatment plants, and help us discover better ways to recycle and dispose of trash. With that much energy, we won’t just reduce our emissions footprint – we could reverse it. And since it runs on hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe, it’s virtually limitless in its production potential. Unlike coal and fossil fuels, fusion reactions generate no CO2 emissions or other byproducts. Today, it’s a reality.Īnd the long-term potential of a fusion-heavy future is simply staggering. Though there are many steps between today and commercial viability, without this step, fusion as an energy source was little more than a science fiction gimmick. But it’s not the size of the reaction that matters – it’s that it happened at all.ĭecember 5’s nuclear fusion breakthrough was the culmination of a century of research, funding dollars and failures. A gain of 1.5.” The importance of this breakthroughĪ gain of 1.5 sounds small, and in energy terms, it is. About 2 megajoules in, about 3 megajoules out. And it produced more energies than the lasers had deposited. But last week for the first time, they designed this experiment so that the fusion fuel stayed hot enough, dense enough and round enough for long enough that it ignited. ![]() This had all happened before, 100 times before. Fusion fuel in the capsule got squeezed, fusion reactions started. X-rays from the wall impinged on the spherical capsule. “192 laser beams entered from the two ends of the cylinder,” he said, “and struck the inner wall…. He noted that the process began with a spherical cylinder containing a small capsule, “about half the diameter of a BB.” Marvin Adams, NNSA Deputy Administrator for Defense Programs, described the process at Tuesday’s press conference. This simple – and incredibly replicable – change allowed something incredible to happen.ĭr. The shell around the capsule they used was thicker than in past experiments, meaning that small flaws effect the experiment less. But on December 5, researchers tried something new. In the past, the energy input from the lasers far exceeded the energy output from the fusion reaction. The fusion process releases enormous amounts of energy. The capsule contains two hydrogen isotopes that, when bombarded with energy, vaporize almost immediately. ![]() The nuclear energy breakthrough in a nutshellĭecember’s nuclear energy breakthrough occurred at the National Ignition Facility, which uses a process called “thermonuclear inertial fusion.”Įssentially, the $3.5 billion laser complex shoots 192 lasers at a tiny capsule. But running a fusion reaction that requires less energy in than it puts out, a process called ignition, has eluded scientists… Since fusion was discovered a century ago, scientists have raced to unlock and replicate the mechanics in a lab. ![]() That makes it the ideal candidate for powering everything from houses to manufacturing plants…if it could be scaled. Fission splits atoms, rather than combines them, generating dangerous radioactive waste in the process.īy contrast, nuclear fusion is far more efficient, generates almost no waste, and runs off hydrogen atoms readily available in seawater, rather than radioactive materials buried in the ground. Nuclear fusion differs from nuclear fission, the process used in nuclear power plants. The process generates enormous amounts of energy, and is the core reaction that drives our sun. Nuclear fusion involves combining atoms into a single, larger atom.
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