Washington, Dec. 13 (BNA): US scientists have revealed a fusion energy breakthrough that could one day help curb climate change if companies can bring the technology to a commercial level in the coming decades.
Scientists at California’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on December 5 reported for the first time briefly a net gain in energy in a laser fusion experiment, the US Department of Energy said. The scientists focused the laser on a fuel target to fuse two atoms of light into a denser atom, releasing energy.
Kimberly Bodell, director of Lawrence Livermore, told reporters at a DOE event that science and technology hurdles mean commercialization probably won’t be five or six decades away, but sooner.
“With concerted effort and investment, a few decades of research on the underlying technologies can put us in a position to build a power plant,” Badil said.
Scientists have known for about a century that fusion powers the sun, and have continued fusion development on Earth for decades, Reuters reports.
The Energy Department said the experiment briefly achieved what is known as fusion ignition by generating 3.15 megajoules of energy output after the laser delivered 2.05 megajoules to the target.
Arati Prabhakar, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, who heard about the merger at Livermore when she worked there briefly in 1978 as a teenager, said the experience was “a great example of what persistence can achieve.”
Nuclear scientists outside the lab said the achievement would be a major stepping stone, but there is a lot of science that needs to be done before fusion becomes commercially viable.
EAE