A first American on par with the historic significance of the moon landing – scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have already passed the break-even point.
National ignition base achieves fusion ignition
The US Department of Energy (DOE) and DOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) today announced the achievement of thermonuclear ignition at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) — a major scientific breakthrough that has been in the making for decades that will pave the way for advancements in defense and the future of clean energy. On December 5, a group at LLNL’s National Ignition Facility(NIF) conducted the first controlled fusion experiment in history to reach this milestone, also known as the scientific energy break-even point, meaning it generates a lot of energy from fusion than laser energy is used to drive it. The first feat of its kind will provide unprecedented capabilities to support the NNSA’s Stockpile Management Program and will provide invaluable insights into the prospects for clean fusion energy, which will be game changer for efforts to achieve President Biden’s goal of a net zero carbon economy.
“This is a landmark achievement for the researchers and staff at the National Ignition Facility, who have dedicated their careers to making it work,” said US Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. witness fusion ignition become a reality, and this milestone is sure to spark even more discoveries.” “The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to supporting our world-class scientists — like the team at NIF — whose work will help us solve humanity’s most pressing and complex problems. , such as providing clean energy to combat climate change and maintain nuclear deterrence without nuclear. test.”
“We have had a theoretical understanding of unity for more than a century, but the journey from knowing to doing can be long and arduous. Dr. Arati Prabhakar, chief adviser to the President for Science and Technology and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said today’s milestone shows what we have. It can be done with perseverance.
“Monday, December 5, 2022, is a historic day in science thanks to the incredible people at Livermore Laboratories and the National Ignition Facility. In making this breakthrough, they opened a new chapter in the NNSA’s Stockpile Management Program,” said NNSA Administrator Jill Hruby. “I want to thank the members of Congress who have supported the National Ignition Facility for their faith in the promise of visionary science that has been so vital to our mission. I. Our team from across DOE’s national labs and our international partners have shown us the power of collaboration.”
LLNL director Dr. Kim Budil said: “The pursuit of fusion ignition in the laboratory is one of the most important scientific challenges humanity has ever tackled, and achieving it is a triumph of science. science, technology and above all people”. “Crossing this threshold is the vision that has fueled 60 years of dedicated pursuit — a process of constantly learning, building, expanding knowledge and capabilities, then finding ways to overcome new challenges. appear. These are problems that the national laboratories of the United States were set up to solve.”
“This incredible scientific advance puts us on the threshold of a future that is no longer dependent on fossil fuels but instead powered by new clean fusion energy,” said Senate Majority Leader US Charles Schumer (NY) said. “I commend Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and their partners in our nation’s Inertial Consolidation Limits (ICF) program, including the University of Rochester Laser Energy Laboratory in New York , for achieving this breakthrough. Making this future world of clean energy a reality will require physicists, creatives, and the brightest minds at DOE-funded institutions, including Laboratories. Laser Rochester, must double their efforts in their cutting edge work. That is why I am also proud to announce today that I have helped achieve the highest ever authorization of more than $624 million this year under the Defense Authorization Act for the ICF program to build build this amazing breakthrough.”
“After more than a decade of scientific and technical innovation, I congratulate the research team at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the National Ignition Facility on their historic achievement,” said US Senator. Dianne Feinstein (CA) speaks. “This is an exciting step forward in consolidation and everyone at Lawrence Livermore and NIF should be proud of this important achievement.”
“This is an innovative historic achievement built on the contributions of generations of Livermore scientists. Today, our nation stands on their collective shoulders. We still have a long way to go, but this is an important step and I commend the US Department of Energy and all those who have contributed to this promising breakthrough, which can help propel propel a brighter clean energy future for the United States and humanity,” he said. United States Senator Jack Reed (RI), Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
“This great scientific breakthrough is an important milestone for the future of clean energy,” said US Senator Alex Padilla (CA). “While there is much work ahead to harness the potential of fusion energy, I am proud that Californian scientists continue to lead the way in the development of clean energy technologies. I congratulate the scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for their dedication to a clean energy future, and I am committed to ensuring that they have all the tools and funding needed to continue. continue this important work.”
“This is a huge problem. We can celebrate another National Ignition Facility performance record. This latest achievement is particularly remarkable because NIF used a less spherically symmetric target than the August 2021 experiment,” said US Representative Zoe Lofgren (CA-19). “This important advance demonstrates the potential for commercialization of fusion energy in the future. Congress and Administration need to fully fund and properly implement the fusion research provisions in the recent CHIPS and Science Act and possibly beyond. During World War II, we built the Manhattan Project to get results in time. The challenges facing the world today are even greater than at the time. We must double down and accelerate research to discover new avenues for the clean, limitless energy that fusion holds.”
“I am delighted that NIF — the most advanced U.S. nuclear research facility — has achieved fusion ignition, potentially providing a new source of clean and sustainable energy in the future. This breakthrough will ensure the safety and reliability of our nuclear stockpile, open new horizons in science and enable new ways to power homes. and our office for decades to come,” said US Representative Eric Swalwell (CA-15). “I commend the scientists and researchers for their hard work and dedication that led to this great scientific achievement, and I will continue to push for strong funding to NIF to support advances in fusion research.”
LLNL’s experiment crossed the fusion threshold by delivering 2.05 megajoules (MJ) of energy to the target, generating 3.15 MJ of fusion energy, demonstrating the most basic science for the first time. for inertial fusion energy (IFE). Many cutting-edge scientific and technological developments are still needed to achieve simple, affordable IFEs to power homes and businesses, and DOE is now restarting its coordinated IFE program across the board. wide in the United States. Combined with private sector investment, there are many impetus to accelerate rapid progress towards commercialization of fusion.
Fusion is the process by which two light nuclei combine to form a single heavier nucleus, releasing large amounts of energy. In the 1960s, a group of pioneering scientists at LLNL theorized that lasers could be used to induce fusion in a laboratory setting. Led by physicist John Nuckolls, who later served as director of LLNL from 1988 to 1994, this revolutionary idea became inertial confinement fusion, the beginning of more than 60 years of research. research and development in lasers, optics, diagnostics, target fabrication, computer modeling and simulation, and experimental design.
In pursuit of this concept, LLNL built a series of increasingly powerful laser systems, leading to the creation of NIF, the world’s largest and highest energy laser system. NIF — located at LLNL in Livermore, California — is about the size of a sports stadium and uses a powerful laser beam to create temperatures and pressures similar to those in the cores of stars and giant planet, as well as inside an exploding nuclear weapon.
Achieving ignition was made possible through the dedication of LLNL employees as well as countless collaborators at DOE’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratory, and the Nevada National Security Agency. ; General Atomics; academic institutions, including the University of Rochester Laser Energy Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California, Berkeley, and Princeton University; international partners, including the United Kingdom’s Atomic Weapons Facility and the French Commission on Atomic and Alternative Energy; and stakeholders at the DOE and NNSA and in Congress.
Source: https://www.llnl.gov/news/national-ignition-facility-achieves-fusion-ignition
One word of warning – there’s a long way to go, between demonstration of energy production in the lab and a viable commercial nuclear fusion reactor. The breakeven requirement only applies to the amount of energy injected into the fusion target, relative to the amount emitted, not the total energy expended to perform the experiment. A much larger amount of energy was used to create 2.05 megajoules (MJ) of energy that eventually hit the target, to produce 3.15MJ of fusion energy. And that 3.15MJ of fusion power is just enough to keep a 2KW plug-in household heater running for 25 minutes.
To turn this into a fusion generator, the energy emitted by the target would need to be greatly increased, and the process would have to fire several times per minute, possibly several times per second, rather than once. fired after hours or days. preparation.
However, this milestone is extremely important – it provides the impetus to tackle the remaining issues.
And there are many potential paths ahead. Merge processes have a much larger capacity to initiate merge processes, as the Soviet Union demonstrated when they detonated the largest atomic bomb ever detonated – it is possible that the key breakthrough to the commercialization of this milestone would be a multi-stage fusion target, releasing massive amounts of energy. much more energy than was used to ignite the initial fusion reaction. Or maybe there are breakthroughs in ultraviolet laser technology.
The point is, scientists are now even more motivated to move forward – they know for sure that their end goal is achievable.
