US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm announced the US breakthrough on nuclear fusion, after the production for the first time in history in a California laboratory of a reaction that generates more energy than needed to trigger it.
"This is a historic achievement for researchers and staff at the National Ignition Facility who have dedicated their careers to seeing fusion ignition become a reality, and this turning point will unleash more breakthroughs," she said.
Usa, nuclear fusion could revolutionize the world
The US has taken "the first steps towards a source of clean energy that could revolutionize the world": said Jill Hruby, US undersecretary for nuclear safety, commenting on the success of the nuclear fusion experiment in a California laboratory.
192 high-energy lasers were used in the experiment.
The official tweet from the US Department of Energy:
BREAKING NEWS: This is an announcement that has been decades in the making.
On December 5, 2022 a team from DOE's @Livermore_Lab made history by achieving fusion ignition.
This breakthrough will change the future of clean power and America's national defense forever.
pic.twitter.com/hFHWbmCNQJ
— US Department of Energy (@ENERGY) December 13, 2022
USA, DECADES FOR THE COMMERCIAL USE OF NUCLEAR FUSION
It will take decades to get commercial use of clean energy from nuclear fusion after the experiment in California.
This was stated by Kim Budil, director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where the test was conducted.
"There are many significant obstacles, not only scientifically but technologically," she said.
“This was once a capsule ignition but to get commercial fusion energy you need a lot of things. You need to be able to produce many fusion ignition events per minute and you need to have a robust system of drive elements to make them. The researcher predicts that “with concerted effort and investment, and a few decades of research into the necessary technologies,
The US-produced nuclear fusion energy was obtained at the National Ignition Facility, which studies inertial confinement fusion using lasers.
About 25 megajoules of energy were generated using a laser pulse of just over 20 megajoules.
Nuclear fusion expert Stefano Atzeni of the Sapienza University of Rome told ANSA
.
"It is - he added - a controlled fusion experiment different from those with magnetic confinement. The result is important because for the first time an amount of energy higher than that used to obtain the reaction was generated".
ANSA. it
At least 30 years for nuclear fusion to become a reality - Science & Technology
Atzeni: 'many technological challenges still to be overcome' (ANSA)
IN THE EXPERIMENT, THE ENERGY GENERATED BY 192 LASERS IN A FEW BILLIONTH OF A SECOND
The energy produced in the United States was generated thanks to 192 laser beams in a few billionth of a second, in the National Ignition Facility experimental structure located in California at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
The experiment took place inside a vacuum chamber, i.e. a container from which the air is pumped out, and the lasers were aimed at a perforated cylindrical container a few millimeters long, Fabrizio Consoli, head of the laser for the Abc fusion of Enea.
The tiny cylinder in turn encloses a spherical capsule with a diameter of three or four millimeters, consisting of a shell that encloses two key elements for obtaining the nuclear fusion reaction: deuterium and tritium.
Penetrating through the holes in the cylinder, the laser beams hit the inside of the container, generating X-rays and these hit the shell of the sphere, removing it and transforming it into plasma, i.e. into a gas of electrically charged particles. Expanding, the plasma he compressed the deuterium and tritium to the ideal pressure and temperature to trigger the fusion reaction.
ANSA. it
Nuclear fusion, clean energy that imitates the Sun - Science & Technology
Different from the fission on which current power plants are based
Marv Adams, deputy administrator for defense programs of the 'National Nuclear Security Administration', provided a description of the experiment that marked the turning point on nuclear fusion.
Holding a cylinder in his hand, the manager explained that inside there was a small spherical capsule with a diameter equal to half that of a basketball and that 192 beams of as many lasers entered from the two ends of the cylinder hitting its inner wall and depositing energy.
This, he pointed out, happened in less time than it took for the Rays to advance 10 feet (304cm), so super fast.
The X-rays from the wall hit the spherical capsule and the fusion fuel in the capsule was injected, then the fusion reaction started.
All of this, he said,
it had happened before, 100 times before.
But last week, for the first time, this experiment was designed so that the fusion fuel remained hot enough, dense enough, and circulating enough to ignite, producing more energy than the lasers had deposited, about two mega joules into about three mega joules out, a gain of 1.5.
Power generation took less time than it takes to travel one inch (2.54 cm).
about two mega joules in about three mega joules out, a gain of 1.5.
Power generation took less time than it takes to travel one inch (2.54 cm).
about two mega joules in about three mega joules out, a gain of 1.5.
Power generation took less time than it takes to travel one inch (2.54 cm).
ANSA. it
Nuclear fusion, the first star 'lit' 10 months ago - Science & Technology
Thanks to the European Jet experimental reactor in Great Britain
