192 lasers start reaction! The United States may realize net energy gain of nuclear fusion for the first time

Laser is helping us to develop clean, intensive and efficient fuels, which in turn requires large-scale clean energy production to help solve the world energy crisis. The net energy obtained from fusion reaction may be an important step towards the goal of creating unlimited clean energy in the near future.

On December 12, researchers from the National Ignition Facility (NIF) and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) announced that they had made a major breakthrough in the latest research on nuclear fusion, realizing net energy gain of fusion reaction for the first time, which may become a milestone in nuclear fusion power generation.

Image source: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

It is reported that this landmark experiment was carried out in August. One year after LLNL's national ignition facility achieved output of more than 1.3 MJ, the scientific results of this experiment will be published in three peer-reviewed papers in 2022. It is reported that on the basis of this result, NIF scientists have achieved "net gain" in the fusion reaction, that is, the energy generated exceeds the energy consumed in the process, and they can maintain themselves for a short time.

Making fusion energy available is internationally recognized as a problem of controllable nuclear fusion. In order to find alternatives to fossil fuels and conventional nuclear energy, physicists have studied nuclear fusion reaction for about 70 years. In addition to zero carbon emissions, it is expected that this energy will generate much less radioactive waste than nuclear fission based power plants.

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) uses the inertial confinement fusion (ICF) process to generate fusion energy. In this process, an experimental device consisting of 192 lasers (as big as three football fields) is used to heat fuel pellets to generate plasma. These particles contain heavy hydrogen (deuterium and tritium), so fusion reaction is more likely to occur and more energy is generated.

Before this successful demonstration, scientists from LLNL and NIF suffered a setback earlier this year, failing to achieve the fusion power of more than 10 trillion watts in August 2021 (reaching the edge of ignition).

In addition, earlier this year, NIF scientists also announced the engineering and testing of a laser system, in which nuclear fusion itself (not the external heating mechanism) provides most of the heat required for nuclear fusion reaction. This achievement will enable scientists to achieve a higher level of fusion performance when they finally try to obtain energy from nuclear fusion and self-sustaining fusion energy.

People familiar with the latest progress said that the fusion reaction in the latest demonstration produced about 2.5 MJ of energy, about 120% of the 2.1 MJ energy consumed by the laser. At present, the analysis of the entire experimental data is still in progress. The US Department of Energy is expected to give a live presentation at about 7:00 a.m. on the 13th Pacific Time (the same day as Beijing Time). Jennifer Granholm, US Energy Secretary, will introduce this "major scientific breakthrough" and the preliminary details of LLNL scientists' work at the press conference.

Although this breakthrough is a milestone, there are still huge engineering and scientific challenges ahead. Nuclear fusion power plants still have a long way to go from actual application. How to maintain the continuous laser emission will still be a big problem. However, people hope that the nuclear fusion energy provided by the same technology used in LLNL demonstration will eventually generate unlimited clean energy.

Global efforts are being made to use low-carbon energy to reduce emissions, and nuclear fusion technology may become a key boost. In addition to achieving the technical milestone of net energy gain, in recent years, the number of start-ups with laser fusion as their business goal has increased dramatically worldwide, and has attracted a large amount of funds from well-known investors, including Bill Gates.

Source: OFweek