Scientists in California have made progress towards their goal of fusion energy, which, if successful, could give the world an almost endless supply of clean power, by aiming nearly 200 laser beams at a cylinder containing a fuel capsule the size of a peppercorn.
In a world first, researchers at the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California (LLNL) created a nuclear fusion reaction last December on a December morning that released more energy than it consumed. This process is known as “ignition.”
According to a December report from the LLNL, they now claim to have successfully replicated ignition at least three times this year. This is a major step forward towards a potential major solution to the global climate crisis, which is primarily caused by the burning of fossil fuels.
Fusion energy is essentially the power of the sun that scientists have been trying to harness for decades on Earth.
The next crucial step after achieving their historic net energy gain the previous year was to demonstrate that the procedure could be repeated. The process’s “robustness” is demonstrated by its ability to replicate, according to Brian Appelbe, a research fellow at Imperial College London’s Centre for Inertial Fusion Studies. This means that even with different laser or fuel pellet conditions, the process can still be accomplished.
According to Appelbe, each experiment provides a chance to thoroughly examine the physics of ignition, as reported by CNN. “This gives the scientists important information to tackle the next obstacle to be solved: how to maximise the energy that can be obtained.”
Nuclear fusion produces no long-lived radioactive waste, in contrast to nuclear fission, the process that produces the energy used in today’s nuclear plants. A plentiful supply of safe, clean energy is enticing as the climate emergency worsens and the need to give up fossil fuels that warm the planet grows.
