UK to Build World's Largest Power Laser: Accelerating the Use of Nuclear Fusion and Promising to Obtain Clean Energy

According to reports, British scientists will build the world's largest power laser. They hope that this £ 85 million (approximately $103 million) device can accelerate the use of nuclear fusion and potentially obtain clean energy, which is inexhaustible.

According to the report, the "Vulcan" 20-20 laser will be built in Havel, Oxfordshire, and it will produce a laser brightness that is 24 times the brightness of the strongest sunlight.

A single laser pulse will generate power equivalent to the power generated by the entire British National Power Company, but it lasts less than 1 trillion millionths of a second and only focuses on a target with a diameter of a few micrometers. This laser is expected to be completed by 2029 and will be used to test methods for generating energy through nuclear fusion. Generating energy through nuclear fusion is a dream goal for physicists.

Scientists at other facilities, mainly the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, USA, are already using high-power lasers to fuse hydrogen atoms together. This can generate helium and energy, reflecting the reactions occurring inside the sun. The latest research results from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory suggest that the energy obtained from this process may exceed the energy invested in it. However, in order to be commercially viable, the efficiency of this process must be greatly improved.

According to reports, the "Vulcan" 20-20 laser will be used to study basic physics, especially for researchers to explore the so-called "shock ignition".

Generally speaking, a fuel particle the size of a pepper - composed of two hydrogen isotopes, deuterium and tritium - is placed in a plastic capsule. The laser beam transforms the capsule into a plasma, causing it to rapidly expand. This causes fuel particles to be crushed to 30 times their original size in one billionth of a second. The pressure reaches 6 times the internal pressure of the sun. If everything goes smoothly, the fuel will "ignite" at a temperature of around 100 million degrees Celsius, triggering a controllable and energy generating fusion reaction.

Physicists will use the "Vulcan" 20-20 laser to observe different parts of this process. The aim is to test some ideas that may be used in the future to build experimental power stations, said Robbie Scott, a plasma physicist at the UK Council for Science and Technology Equipment.

According to the report, one challenge is to study how to use a series of laser beams to evenly crush a fuel particle from all directions simultaneously. In a full-scale power plant, this achievement may take up to 10 times a second to achieve.

The "Vulcan" 20-20 laser will also be used in "laboratory astrophysics", allowing scientists to simulate conditions in phenomena such as supernovae. A supernova is a violent explosion experienced by certain stars towards the end of their evolution.

It may also be used to convert light into matter. This can be achieved by colliding photons, creating electron and positron pairs. These matter and antimatter particles are believed to have been generated around neutron stars in distant space, but we have almost no idea how they formed.

Alex Robinson, also from the UK Council on Science and Technology Equipment, said, "If you could use a high-power laser beam to create these electron and positron pairs, you might be able to understand how this happened. In fact, there is no other scientific device that can make you do this.

According to reports, the "Vulcan" 20-20 laser will be built at the UK Science and Technology Equipment Council Center Laser Facility, which is part of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. The first phase of the project has just begun. The UK government supported research funding agency, the UK Research and Innovation Agency, provided £ 85 million for the central laser device.

The "Huoshen" 20-20 laser will produce a main laser line with a power of 20 petawatts, and in addition, 8 high-energy laser lines will be produced. This will make it the world's largest power laser.

Professor Mark Thomson from the UK Council for Science and Technology Equipment said: 'The Vulcan 20-20 project will put the central laser device at the forefront of high-power laser science and make new experiments in key areas such as renewable energy research possible.'

Source: Laser Manufacturing Network