In a historic first, a fusion reactor has exceeded the energy efficiency of fossil fuels! The reaction yielded 1.3 megajoules of energy, a higher amount than the input of fuel it took to power the reactor.
The group of physicists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory responsible for this incredible feat, presented their findings at the 63rd Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics. The team has been working hard to refine the process; lowering the energy input, improving precision, and refining materials used. Through these techniques, they managed to improve the energy-producing power of this process to more than 25 times greater than comparable experiments from 2018.
What is inertial confinement fusion?
The result was achieved by inertial confinement fusion. It works by placing heavy isotopes of hydrogen in a hollow gold chamber. Then, 192 high-powered lasers are focused at the canister. This process converts the beams to X-rays, causing the chamber to explode. Overall, the goal is to achieve ignition. This is when the energy output is higher than the total input.
This science experiment creates conditions similar to the center of a star. Here, temperatures of over 180 million Fahrenheit (100 million degrees Celsius) are reached, and a pressure greater than 100 billion Earth atmospheres is created. This impressive process takes a few billionths of a second to play out.
The future of fusion
“Achieving ignition in a laboratory remains one of the scientific grand challenges of this era and this result is a momentous step forward towards achieving that goal,” said Johan Frenje, a scientist at MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center. “In addition, the result is historic as it represents the culmination of many decades of hard work, innovation and ingenuity, teamwork on a large scale, and relentless focus on the ultimate goal.”
The next step is for the team to repeat their findings, ensuring the results are reproducible, with the hope being to increase the energy efficiency even further. This discovery comes just at the right time. Thanks to fossil fuel depletion and the current climate emergency, a new abundant energy technology that’s clean is surely needed. This achievement takes a step closer to that. In the meantime, let’s go all in on other non-carbon renewable energy sources ─ like solar, wind, geothermal and green hydrogen!
