U.S. expected to announce major nuclear fusion energy breakthrough

[JMCx4]

Stay tuned on Tuesday ...
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From: The Financial Times > Energy Sector

Fusion energy breakthrough by US scientists boosts clean power hopes

Net energy gain indicates technology could provide an abundant zero-carbon alternative to fossil fuels

Tom Wilson in London YESTERDAY (11 December 2022)

US government scientists have made a breakthrough in the pursuit of limitless, zero-carbon power by achieving a net energy gain in a fusion reaction for the first time, according to three people with knowledge of preliminary results from a recent experiment.

Physicists have since the 1950s sought to harness the fusion reaction that powers the sun, but no group had been able to produce more energy from the reaction than it consumes — a milestone known as net energy gain or target gain, which would help prove the process could provide a reliable, abundant alternative to fossil fuels and conventional nuclear energy.

The federal Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, which uses a process called inertial confinement fusion that involves bombarding a tiny pellet of hydrogen plasma with the world’s biggest laser, had achieved net energy gain in a fusion experiment in the past two weeks, the people said. ...


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[Seedtype]

Crossing fingers hard here.

Some sort of clean energy breakthrough and maybe better battery tech/recycling would be world saving.

 

[beowulf]

Was coming to post this. Would be the second big move forward this year for fusion.

 

[Seedtype]

I'm looking forward to what they'll announce, however I remember a Youtube video last year by Dr. Hossenfelder on Youtube:

She makes a point about how a lot of fusion breakthroughs don't really live up to the hype that can appear in the news media. Basically her point is that while some of these gains sound promising, when it comes to leading to an actual practical fusion power plant, we're not close at all. (The video goes into Q totals/Q plasma stuff... I really can't explain it myself, heh)

Edit: Ah what the heck, I'll try to TLDR as I understand it: basically the energy produced by fusion results far doesn't mean actual energy that is being turned into electricity, all major fusion results so far has been about the amount of heat made basically. You still need to turn that heat into electricity, and you need to be able to have that be greater than the energy to start up the fusion reaction for it to be practical. IE. true net gain that is actually usable.

Again, we'll just have to hear what LLNL is going to announce tomorrow.

 

[John Price]

U.S. expected to announce major nuclear fusion energy breakthrough U.S. expected to announce major breakthrough in quest for zero-carbon nuclear fusion energy

 

[Gee Wally]

I’m pretty psyched about this. Mainly because aside from the obvious breakthrough my oldest son is a Physicist at Livermore Labs and has been on this project for 5 years.

Very happy for him and the Lab.

 

[LadyStanley]

Fusion breakthrough is a milestone for climate, clean energy

Scientists announced Tuesday that they have for the first time produced more energy in a fusion reaction than was used to ignite it — a major breakthrough in the decades-long quest to harness the process that powers the sun. Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in...

news.yahoo.com

The announcement

 

[Seedtype]

Fusion breakthrough is a milestone for climate, clean energy

Scientists announced Tuesday that they have for the first time produced more energy in a fusion reaction than was used to ignite it — a major breakthrough in the decades-long quest to harness the process that powers the sun. Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in...

news.yahoo.com

The announcement

Yeah, so obviously an important milestone but still as the article says:

The net energy gain achievement applied to the fusion reaction itself, not the total amount of power it took to operate the lasers and run the project. For fusion to be viable, it will need to produce significantly more power and for longer.

We still got a long's way to go.

Still, congratulations to all those who are involved.(Edit: Especially to your son, Gee Wally)

 

[Gee Wally]

Yeah, so obviously an important milestone but still as the article says:



We still got a long's way to go.

Still, congratulations to all those who are involved.(Edit: Especially to your son, Gee Wally)

thanks.
he’s pretty excited. And yes it’s a first milestone. Whilst I make no claim to understanding it he does dumb it down for dear old Dad.

He does the math computations and simulations calculations on the giant mirrors that concentrate the lasers .

He told me to think of the breakthrough like Kitteyhawk flight. Didnt last long but proved it can be done.
The site itself in Livermore is huge. For me like a city in itself.

 

[spintheblackcircle]

My science knowledge is about a 1 or a 2, but I seem to be able understand topics better after viewing this channel