Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have achieved a first-of-its-kind fusion ignition that will change the future of clean energy.
For the first time, researchers in the field are producing more energy from fusion than was used to power it.
The achievement, officially unveiled Tuesday, occurred on December 5. At LLNL’s National Ignition Facility (NIF), the first demonstration of ‘fusion ignition’ was performed in a laboratory device. The NIF is the largest and most powerful inertial fusion power facility of its kind.
Fusion ignition’ is one of the most significant scientific challenges ever faced by mankind. It is the point at which a nuclear fusion reaction produces enough energy to be self-sustaining. It simulates energy production in the Sun and is considered the ‘holy grail’ for clean, inexhaustible energy.
In the 1960s, pioneering Livermoore scientists led by John Nuckolls hypothesized that lasers could be used to achieve fusion ignition, which has only now been achieved for the first time.
To develop the project over the past 60 years, LLNL built a series of increasingly powerful laser systems, leading to the creation of NIF. Located in Livermore, California, it is the size of a sports stadium and uses powerful lasers to create temperatures and pressures like those found in the cores of giant stars and planets, and inside exploding nuclear weapons.
Fusion is the process by which our sun and all other stars exist. Nuclear fusion occurs when two atomic nuclei combine to form a heavier nucleus.
On December 5, the fusion energy released at NIF was greater than the energy of the laser beam applied for that purpose, exceeding the threshold necessary for ignition.
The LLNL experiment exceeded the fusion threshold by delivering 2.05 megajoules (MJ) of energy to the target, resulting in 3.15 MJ of fusion energy production, demonstrating for the first time a fundamental scientific basis for inertial fusion energy (IFE).
Many advanced scientific and technological developments are still needed to achieve a simple and affordable IFE to power homes and businesses, and DOE is currently restarting a coordinated, broad-based IFE program in the United States. Combined with private sector investment, there is strong momentum to drive rapid progress toward commercialization of fusion, according to a DOE release.
As Biden administration Energy Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm explained in the presentation, this milestone also opens up an unprecedented capability to support Stockpile Stewardship, the U.S. program for reliability testing and maintenance of its nuclear weapons without the use of nuclear testing.
